Straight from the Gut Pradeep Shankar
Success comes to those who dare to dream and have the spirit to make it true.
This is proved by the brothers- Kalyan Raman and Kumar Srinivasan.
"" then
"The beauty of hope is that when you have nothing else left to lean upon, you get used to be peaceful. You wait for miracles to happen. Waiting for miracles helps remain hopeful."
The audacity of hope does seem to be a skimpy little virtue quite often. But, for those who have the audacity to hope have little choice but to make it come true. It was this virtue that made Kumar Srinivasan and Kalyan Raman(Kal) to emerge from the humble environs of the village in which they were born to the sophisticated corporate world. Successfully breaking the shackles of poverty that ruined the mirth of their boyhood, the two brothers today reign the corporate world—Kumar Srinivasan as the General Manager, Vice President of Technology and Head of Amazon Bangalore Center and Kalyan Raman as the CEO of Global Scholar.They have come a long way, though the journey was not an easy one. "It's neither easy now", adds Kumar. But that never deterred them. Challenges fuelled their hope, and every trial and triumph turned out to be a new learning experience. The story is not a 'rags to riches' story, but it is more about the growth of two individuals who had the innate wisdom and an undying spirit. Truly validating the words, "We are all born with a divine spark in us. Our effort should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness."The Cost of Being PoorOn Diwali morning in 1987 Kumar Srinivasan woke up just as he did every day. His biggest Diwali gift was waiting for him. "My brother gave me Rs. 10 and he was budgeting this for the last 3 months," recalls Kumar. With no breakfast, he used to walk 10-12 kms everyday to go to school. Luckily for him, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran had introduced Midday Meal Scheme for school children in the state. "That's why my mom always voted for MGR’s party," quips Kumar. While he looked forward to the much-needed meal—sambar bath with a few pieces of carrot and tomato, Kumar would stay back after all students had left to wash the vessels. This would earn him an extra plate of meal, which he promptly packed and brought home. Sometime he would give it to his younger brother in whose school the scheme was yet to be introduced, and sometimes the morsel of food would be lunch for his sister next day. His childhood memories still bear the imprints of a household bonded by the pressures of poverty.Kumar’s family lived in such abject poverty that they reached a point when they had nothing left in the house that could be sold to meet the next day’s expenses. It was then that his mother decided to sell the only ceiling fan left in the house. Selling the fan would buy them food for another one full week. "The situation was so miserable that I remember my mother selling our stainless steel plates, in which we would eat, for 50 paise," narrates Kumar."I still remember passing down the clothes to my younger brothers. The trousers that the youngest one used to wear to go to school had more white patches on it than its original blue color because of the stitches," nostalgically says Kumar’s elder brother Kalyan Raman (Kal). His energy and passion are very obvious in his words. And it is this energy and passion that were a common trait amongst all the siblings. He says, "We never felt we were poor. Even though we weren't all that happy, we were peaceful because we always lived on hope. The beauty of hope is that when you have nothing else left to lean upon, you get used to be peaceful. You wait for miracles to happen. Waiting for miracles helps remain hopeful," says Kal.Born in an ordinary middle class family, they had got into poverty quite accidentally. Kumar’s father was a tahsildhar (taluk administrator). The family enjoyed the amenities of a government officer, like furnished quarters, jeeps, and servants. His dad was a self-contained person and believed in helping the needy. But the harmful habit of alcohol that he developed unfortunately led to his untimely death. He left behind a huge debt as well. Soon the family—mother and five kids—found themselves in the street since they had to vacate the government quarters. Relatives helped their mother to find a rented house in the village. But they also distanced themselves from them in no time. She made a bold call and took it upon her shoulders saying, "I want every kid to be educated to the best of their abilities. Nobody is going to discontinue education and take a job for a short term gain. If we have to suffer for a few years, so be it." Many of their relatives thought otherwise. They saw no need for all the kids to go to school. Her stubbornness to send children to school only meant that relatives would stop helping. It didn't matter much to her. It is only in retrospect, that her children fully understand how deeply this innate wisdom and generosity of spirit of hers guided them on the path they ultimately took.Kumar’s mother made a smart move in handpicking Kal and sending him to a hostel in the same village for formal education. Kal was optimistic, passionate, and always willing to take risks. Perhaps, these characteristics of his made his mother select him for this.Kal was indeed a brilliant boy and his mother knew he possessed an abiding sense of wonder, a reverence for life, and an audacity to hope, dream, and pursue his aspirations. He stood first in his district in the 12th standard (plus 2) after which he got admission to both engineering and medical colleges. The medical college was in the district headquarters itself, just 20 kms from Kal's village. He opted for engineering, which meant he had to go to Chennai. "The only reason why I didn't want to join MBBS was I didn't want my career to start and end in my district. I wanted to go as far away as possible. One has to take risks in life to know what he is made up of. If you attempt to do something meaningful, always aim at being disproportionate," he says. Indeed, does the seagull not fly across the sun, alone and without a nest?To move away from his roots, Kal was taking a bold step with strong desires to lead a life full of aspirations. He knew he had to move away to learn and grow and was sure of his decision. He came from nowhere and he was going to a place where he hardly knew anybody. He became fully involved in his studies, with a strong desire to achieve wherever he would have to live and in whatever work he would be engaged. Best students from elite schools across the state used to come there to study, and here was a kid from the village trying to compete with them. "It was not daunting, but it was exciting to me," says Kal. However, it was not a happy sign to see his classmates coming to college on bicycles, bikes, or cars. Some were wearing double bull shirts and the latest branded jeans or shoes out in the market. Kal couldn’t get the money to buy or do whatever he wanted. "I struggled," he notes. What surprised me more was the way Kal narrated his life. He has come a long way from his days of hardship but that does not deter him from narrating the most helpless situations in his life, neither does he shy away from it. He speaks with ease and narrates with passion.Kal recalls another incident. While he was in Anna University, like other hostel students, he would need money for his basic expenses. A postman would come to the hostel block during lunch break, sit in a prominent place and read out names of students who had received money orders from their parents. "Senthil...Rs 500; Arasu...Rs 200; Chandra...Rs 1,000; Selvam…; and so on." The students would walk up, collect the money, and tip the postman with Rs 5 or 10, as they pleased. The postman would never ever call out 'Kalyan Raman'. After the roll call, as the happy students dispersed, the postman would silently walk up to Kal and handover the Rs. 2.50 money order his mother would have sent with love. "Receiving such a meager amount would look bad for an engineering student. The postman was so thoughtful that he would not call my name as it would hurt my self respect. Even if I offered 25 paise as a friendly tip he would not accept it," recalls Kal. The thoughtful postman would only pat on his back and say, "Kalyan, study well." But the money order his mother sent him reminded Kal of a number of things and kindled his spirits, and perhaps was one of the main reasons behind what Kal has achieved today.With almost zero money, Kal became the biggest defaulter for not paying the mess fees. The cook in the kitchen had learnt about Kal's poor condition. He would say, "I know I am not supposed to give you food but come after everyone is done with." There were several days when Kal had no food to eat. He would be eagerly waiting to grab food when day scholars at college offered him a portion of the food that they had brought from home. "It was a survival game," says Kal.A campus offer by TCE Consulting Engineers Limited (TCE) took Kal to Bombay (now Mumbai). He would soon earn Rs 3,000 a month, money that his family hadn't seen since his dad had passed away. However, on his first day the young lad had gone to work wearing hawai chappals (bathroom slippers) and a suitcase in his hand. He traveled from Chennai, disembarked from the train at Dadar East Station, and went to office directly. The manager was stunned at seeing his attire. When the day came to a close, he did not know where to go for the night. He had no place to stay. The only place he could think of was the Dadar Station, one of the busiest railway stations in the country. It rained heavily that night and Kal had a sound sleep on the hard concrete platform in that chilling August night.The next day he rested in the public restroom and came back to work clad in the same attire. The manager summoned him as he found it very disrespectful. On learning about Kal's extreme conditions, he got the management to make arrangements for his stay and gave him some advance money to buy a pair of shoes. Kal promptly sent the money back home, postponing the purchase of shoes to some later date.Kal's passion for technology soon saw him switching from TCE to TCS, one of India's largest IT services company. It was during his stint at TCS that he met Vijayalakshmi, who would go on to become his life partner. TCS deputed Kal to Edinburgh, Scotland, on a project for Scottish Equitable Life Insurance Company. Over there, too, the client was impressed with Kal's work and offered him a permanent job in Scotland. But the manager was good enough to say that he was smart, he would go up the ladder in quick succession but would hit a glass ceiling in the end. He advised him to go to the land of opportunity—the Unites States of America. He also gave him a magazine, which had ads for job opportunities in the U.S. As there was no email in those days, Kal faxed his resumes to body shopping companies. Luckily for him, the interview with Wal-Mart went well and he soon landed in Atlanta, Georgia, with $100 in his pocket, two suitcases, and his wife beside him. He knew nobody there. Life changed swiftly thereafter.Kal’s smartness to dabble with technology was quite visible to people at Wal-Mart. In less than 18 months he was promoted from the level of a programmer to the position of a Director with a mandate for running a $8 billion division. Many people were jealous of Kal's growth. It was difficult for them to digest the fact that the 26 year old became a Director in 18 months. They hadn't seen anyone getting promoted so quickly at Wal-Mart. There were as many admirers as people who weren't happy with Kal's fast rise. Soon there were several people pouncing upon him. "I was swimming with the sharks. They probably had genuine reasons and did not like my style of management. They were stunned by emotion while I was trying to be logical. I was willing to accept my mistakes and made an honest attempt to change. I gave it a hard shot to regain credibility. It was not worth it. I can change myself; I can’t change the world," says Kal.By then Wal-Mart's President had left to join Blockbuster. Kal followed suite. As a senior director of technology at Blockbuster, Kal managed technology across 26 countries. By 2001 he joined drugstore.com as CIO.Kumar follows KalMeanwhile Kumar completed his B.Sc. in Physics, and on his brother's advice he landed inChennai and joined SSI for Diploma in Computers. He recalls his first job in a small company with no salary for six months and a meager amount of Rs. 200 thereafter. However this did not deter him from working hard for long hours. Soon things started to change for the better. He then went to the U.S. to join his brother in Wal-Mart. This was followed by stints in Blockbuster and drugstore.com. His biggest breakthrough happened at Travelocity where he rose to the position of Vice President of Technology at a young age of 31.His urge to switch from technology to business brought him to Amazon where he currently is the General Manager and Vice President responsible for a business unit, while being the head of the India center. However, Kumar doesn't agree to the fact that he has achieved a lot in a short span of 10 years of his professional life. "Go, look at the Facebook CEO, he is just 23. I am 13 years behind already. Everyday I think I am very much behind and need to catch up with the rest of the world," he says. In Kumar’s spirit and daring attitude to perform you cannot fail to see a mirror image of Kal.Moving up the career ladder in quick succession requires an undaunted fighting spirit. "It is this spirit that has brought me to where I am today," notes Kumar. He mentions that such skills are developed early on in one's life. "Progression doesn't happen because we take things for granted. For instance, getting new clothes for Diwali is taken for granted. In our case, we had to fight for five years to get clothes for one Diwali," says Kumar. With that fighting spirit coupled with an exposure to the realities of life at the bottom of the food chain, it's difficult for him now to be satisfied with anything. One has to constantly fight and grow up.In the times of troubleNot only in his personal life, in his career too has Kal seen unexpected calamities and downturns. He joined drugstore as CTO in 1998 and later served as COO. In April 2001 he became the CEO. He was 34, pretty young to be a public company CEO. Unfortunately, Sept 11 happened. Like any other stock, drugstore stock plummeted drastically from $60 to 47 cents. The company was losing money and the stock was at the verge of being delisted. Kal told his team, "Any business has some controllable input variables and some uncontrollable output variables. We need to focus on controlling the controllable." In addition to growing revenues during his four years as CEO, Raman cut operating expenses by $90 million and brought the company to profitability. Several analysts wrote, "He has done the best he could under the circumstances."The problem with several large companies is that there are too many smart people who will give you so many data points and put you through many intellectual exercises—it's almost close to getting paralyzed. One should not forget the fundamentals of any business—you buy something and sell it back to the customer. As long as we can sell it for a higher price than its cost price, and the difference could pay for the salaries for all the employees and meet the other expenses, your business will remain profitable. One has to figure out the best way to do it. Kal is today the CEO of GlobalScholar.com, which offers an online tutoring platform, where parents and students can safely connect with trusted educators who provide one-on-one tutoring, homework help, or self-paced learning. The PurposeThe family today runs three orphanages near their village, supporting 700 kids. Kal and his brothers take care of the kids' schooling, clothes, and living expenses. The family has also built classrooms for schools and is also sponsoring an old age house near their village. They are sponsoring at least 50 students at any given time for higher studies. "We engage in these activities mainly for two purposes: We don't want anyone that we know of going through the same things that we had gone through, and we believe "Education is salvation", says Kumar. Kal is quick to add, "I don't consider this as charity," but rather "a duty". This is the society, which helped me, these are the people who subsidized my "free" education, and these were the people who gave me the "hope and aspiration." Kal remarks, as he narrates couplets in Tamil of Thiruvalluvar, a sage and philosopher who lived about 2,000 years ago: Kodithu Kodithy Varumai Kodithu Athaninum Kodithu Illamayil Varumai. It says: Poverty is very cruel; more cruel is the poverty in youth. "Poverty and richness can either be a catalyst or could be a burden to get better. It all depends on the mindset. It has everything to do with the fire in the belly or having the wings of fire. There are examples of people getting repressed and depressed by poverty and unable to get anywhere. Willing to do whatever it takes and wanting to prove a point, wanting to make a difference, wanting to be known for something—that's what differentiates. Poverty just pushes the goals farther and makes the struggle to achieve interesting, from the view point of others. It creates its own challenges. I don't think, it either hurts or helps if the person doesn't have that fire within him."When Kal's dad passed away, he used to tell his mother, "Don't worry mother. Some day we (children) will make so much of money that you wouldn’t even know what to do with." She did believe in his words. "Neither of us had any clue as to how it will come to pass," quips Kal. And he definitely kept his promise.
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This story (infact reality) is an extract from "http://www.thesmarttechie.com/magazine/fullstory.php/WIOB985704495"
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
What India is Missing these days?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaTYLy1Jgio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gstRrEmTcBc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejymLCjIuGY
A view by non-indian, non-hindu french journalist on recent terror activities in India:
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081110&fname=BMalegaon+Terror+(F)&sid=2 - This is an extract from OutlookIndia.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gstRrEmTcBc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejymLCjIuGY
A view by non-indian, non-hindu french journalist on recent terror activities in India:
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20081110&fname=BMalegaon+Terror+(F)&sid=2 - This is an extract from OutlookIndia.com
Saturday, October 25, 2008
My Sunday Special
This weekend, is one of the most relaxed weekends that I had recently. Though I am into a project where the work is not as demanding as it was in my previous project, my laziness always had something or the other task scheduled for the weekend. And most often than not, I again postpone them to the week after that weekend. Anyways, after sometime, recently this has been the week where I am most relaxed.
I am an ardent fan of Eenadu and in particular the weekly Sunday special from Eenadu. Back home, on Sunday's we still have competition to get hold of the weekly magazine every weekend. We feel the weekend is incomplete, if we don't get our hands over the Sunday special of Eenadu. Now that I am in this distant dollar nation, I don't have to compete with my family members to get to the magazine. In fact, I get to it even before my family members; thanks to the online version of Eenadu.
For me, the sections that I look forward to in the magazine are (in the order of preference)
(a) Cartoons by Sridhar: The witty picturization of the national and state politics. Foreign affairs and relations with our neighbours are worth appreciating. They are funny, simple and yet drive the point home.
(b) Bala Vindoini (Fun for Children): Though I have grown up, right from the school days when I started reading the newspapers, through my teens both in high school and graduation and till the present day of professional,..this is one such sections that I have never missed to pay attention to. Though this section is for children and kids, this still remains as one of favorites. The cartoon character (don't know if this character has any name)...still remains the same though I have grown young and has been my weekend friend who brings smile on my face with his funny quotes. The other interesting topics in the section are (i) Find the differences in similar pictures, (ii) the once in a while maze, (iii) the simple moral stories from the old extracts of Panchatantra, Akbar-Birbal etc., and (iv) the word puzzle, which i had rarely completed; not that it is tough but it did not attract me. Anyways all these collectively make "Bala Vindohini" one of my favorite sections of the magazine.
(c) Sachitra Katanalu(News with associated Pictures): This section carries news items along with the associated pictures. The usual culprits that are make their way into this section are (i) the short interviews with celebrities and their opinions on some day to day topics. (ii) silly point: a comedy section with some quotes that make you smile, (iii) Short biography of the artists /telugu film fraternity: This section usually takes a leaf out of the lives of the famous personalities from Andhra Pradesh and in particular from the lives of the Telugu film artists. The hard times that they faced, how they overcame the tough times of their life and the support that they received to make it big in the industry.(iv) Short inspirational stories; one such inspirational story that I read today, prompted me to start this post. Though the intention of starting this post was different, the content in the current post truly deserves a mention in my blog. Now my immediate task is to rename the post on its completion. And include that inspirational story in the immediate post.
(d) Cover Story: Discusses about the hot topics in the recent past, present or future in detail in this section. Though this remains the crux of the magazine, every weekend, I usually leave it to the week ahead to complete the reading. One main reason for leaving it for the rest of the week is the competition to get hold of the magazine at home and the second reason is leaving some tasks for the week ahead. I need to either watch television or read newspaper or some magazine while having my dinner / lunch, so I leave the cover story for the week ahead. After reading for so many years, one cover story that I always look forward to on the eve of every new-year is the round up of the news events that made the headlines the current year.
(e) Maya lokam (Imaginary World): This section in the magazine is reveals about the funny behaviours of the old time rulers and the funny behaviour / beliefs of the who and who of the world. This really makes you think of the funny attitudes beliefs people had in the old days.
(f) Katha (An imaginary story) and Idi Katha Kadu(Real story): These are the sections that read the least in all these years. The imaginary story though are interesting and try to deliver a moral to the readers, the stories are usually around the topics of human relations in families. The stories mostly revolve around the relations between parents and children in the modern days compared to the pre-globalization era where join families, family values had preference over the worldly attractions and wealthy (THE THINGS). Talking about the real stories, these are usually are the real and mysterious stories; there was a time in my teens when this section made it to be my compulsory readings. But I left reading this section as I have least preference to read crime stories.
All these columns make our weekend and week pass by in no time. As I was talking about the event that triggered this post, the initial title for the post was "Secret of Success" - a short inspiration story that I read in today's Sunday Special of Eenadu. I wanted to make a mention of that story in this blog, but as I started writing the post the topic of Sunday Special took over and I had to change the title to Eenadu Sunday Special ..oops - My Sunday Special.
I am an ardent fan of Eenadu and in particular the weekly Sunday special from Eenadu. Back home, on Sunday's we still have competition to get hold of the weekly magazine every weekend. We feel the weekend is incomplete, if we don't get our hands over the Sunday special of Eenadu. Now that I am in this distant dollar nation, I don't have to compete with my family members to get to the magazine. In fact, I get to it even before my family members; thanks to the online version of Eenadu.
For me, the sections that I look forward to in the magazine are (in the order of preference)
(a) Cartoons by Sridhar: The witty picturization of the national and state politics. Foreign affairs and relations with our neighbours are worth appreciating. They are funny, simple and yet drive the point home.
(b) Bala Vindoini (Fun for Children): Though I have grown up, right from the school days when I started reading the newspapers, through my teens both in high school and graduation and till the present day of professional,..this is one such sections that I have never missed to pay attention to. Though this section is for children and kids, this still remains as one of favorites. The cartoon character (don't know if this character has any name)...still remains the same though I have grown young and has been my weekend friend who brings smile on my face with his funny quotes. The other interesting topics in the section are (i) Find the differences in similar pictures, (ii) the once in a while maze, (iii) the simple moral stories from the old extracts of Panchatantra, Akbar-Birbal etc., and (iv) the word puzzle, which i had rarely completed; not that it is tough but it did not attract me. Anyways all these collectively make "Bala Vindohini" one of my favorite sections of the magazine.
(c) Sachitra Katanalu(News with associated Pictures): This section carries news items along with the associated pictures. The usual culprits that are make their way into this section are (i) the short interviews with celebrities and their opinions on some day to day topics. (ii) silly point: a comedy section with some quotes that make you smile, (iii) Short biography of the artists /telugu film fraternity: This section usually takes a leaf out of the lives of the famous personalities from Andhra Pradesh and in particular from the lives of the Telugu film artists. The hard times that they faced, how they overcame the tough times of their life and the support that they received to make it big in the industry.(iv) Short inspirational stories; one such inspirational story that I read today, prompted me to start this post. Though the intention of starting this post was different, the content in the current post truly deserves a mention in my blog. Now my immediate task is to rename the post on its completion. And include that inspirational story in the immediate post.
(d) Cover Story: Discusses about the hot topics in the recent past, present or future in detail in this section. Though this remains the crux of the magazine, every weekend, I usually leave it to the week ahead to complete the reading. One main reason for leaving it for the rest of the week is the competition to get hold of the magazine at home and the second reason is leaving some tasks for the week ahead. I need to either watch television or read newspaper or some magazine while having my dinner / lunch, so I leave the cover story for the week ahead. After reading for so many years, one cover story that I always look forward to on the eve of every new-year is the round up of the news events that made the headlines the current year.
(e) Maya lokam (Imaginary World): This section in the magazine is reveals about the funny behaviours of the old time rulers and the funny behaviour / beliefs of the who and who of the world. This really makes you think of the funny attitudes beliefs people had in the old days.
(f) Katha (An imaginary story) and Idi Katha Kadu(Real story): These are the sections that read the least in all these years. The imaginary story though are interesting and try to deliver a moral to the readers, the stories are usually around the topics of human relations in families. The stories mostly revolve around the relations between parents and children in the modern days compared to the pre-globalization era where join families, family values had preference over the worldly attractions and wealthy (THE THINGS). Talking about the real stories, these are usually are the real and mysterious stories; there was a time in my teens when this section made it to be my compulsory readings. But I left reading this section as I have least preference to read crime stories.
All these columns make our weekend and week pass by in no time. As I was talking about the event that triggered this post, the initial title for the post was "Secret of Success" - a short inspiration story that I read in today's Sunday Special of Eenadu. I wanted to make a mention of that story in this blog, but as I started writing the post the topic of Sunday Special took over and I had to change the title to Eenadu Sunday Special ..oops - My Sunday Special.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Some Quotes..
Question: Jobs in US are ____________.
Multiple Choice: (a) Temporarily Permanent (b) Permanently Temporary.
"If I had an education, I would not have had time to learn anything else." - Cornelius Vanderbilt
Success is really doing what you love and doing it well --- Warren Buffet.To know the road ahead, ask those coming back -- Someone.
Whatever you dream, you will not achieve everything in your life. You will not achieve anything in your life, if you do not dream. -- Someone.
Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working -- Someone.
Every winner was once a beginner -- Dennis Waitley
Every winner was once a beginner -- Dennis Waitley
Have an attitude of adventure, and enjoy the journey - Doherty
Patience Pays ---
Turn the stones thrown at you into milestones and conquer them --- Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar.
Big Dreams, And The Desire And Passion To Chase It Is Important -- Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
Big Dreams, And The Desire And Passion To Chase It Is Important -- Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
Sachin Creates History!
Hats off to one of the great bastman's in the history of modern cricket, my hero, my role model and my inspiration - Sachin Tendulkar. On October 17, 2008 Sachin Creates history by breaking the world record for most number of runs in the history of test cricket and becomes the first man to score 12,000 runs. Sachin broke the record of most number of runs of Brian Charles Lara, the elegant left hander from West Indies, contemporary of Sachin Tendulkar. Interestingly Brian Lara also made the record of most number of runs in test cricket against the test in Australia. These great batsmen of 90's and 2000's have a liking for the best team in the world.
Co-incidentally this happens to be the birthday of Jumbo - the current captain of Indian Test Cricket Team, who eventually could not play today's match because of shoulder injury.
Lara and Tendulkar are the great batsman of this era of cricket which people like me have grown up seeing them play. Lara who happens to be the left handed batsman in contrast to Sachin being the right handed batsman. Both these men have been the spine of the batting lines up of their respective teams for most part of the last two decades. I would love to see them play all the time. These people have played all around the world and won the hearts of millions of cricket loving fans.
I am a die-hard fan of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I don't mind what people keep talking about his game. I only want him to play as long as he plays. Sachin happens to be the humble person, who inspite of being the great batsman of this era is still down to earth and always lets his bat answer the critics. In this same match, Sachin's contemporary, compatriot and the southpaw who is the God of offside cricket, Sourav Ganguly crossed the mile stone of scoring more than 7000 runs and is the only 4th Indian to have done so after Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. I respect Ganguly for what he has given Indian cricket, the agressive face and the winning habit. Though I always think Ganguly had to face the unnecessary political issues of the cricket board in India but if I had to believe the reports that surfaced during the latter part of his captaincy days, it looks like he was part of the same politics in his time.
Anyways, keeping all the politics apart and being a true fan of Indian Cricket, I strongly believe that Indian team is going to miss the lethal combination of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Sourav Chandra Ganguly. The opening pair that ruled the world of ODI's in the late 90's and ealry 2000's. However, co-incidentally, Ganguly has been around when Sachin scored the most number of test hundreds surpassing Sunil Gavaskar and scored the most number of test centuries surpassing Brian Lara. Sourav has no doubt been the great captain's India has ever produced. In the current test Sourav scored his 16th test century, 2nd against Australia and first against the neumero uno team in India.
These cricketing legends have been our role models to many of the younger Indian generation, they have carried the burden of the Indian cricket in the last two decades. Have enjoyed the status of demi God and at the same time have seen the anger of the cricket crazy nation. These great players of Indian Cricket Team.. Sachin, Sourav, Rahul, Laxman and Anil have done there job and they have nothing to prove to the world, they have proved what they are capable of number of times.It's only that this cricket crazy, greedy nation always wants them to put India on top and have a short lived memory who almost always forget the achievements of these people and are ever ready to criticize them. As Sachin had put it after achieving this great feat that "turned the stones thrown at him into milestones and conquered those milestones." These people will live forever in the hearts of the cricket fans even after they leave the field.
Co-incidentally this happens to be the birthday of Jumbo - the current captain of Indian Test Cricket Team, who eventually could not play today's match because of shoulder injury.
Lara and Tendulkar are the great batsman of this era of cricket which people like me have grown up seeing them play. Lara who happens to be the left handed batsman in contrast to Sachin being the right handed batsman. Both these men have been the spine of the batting lines up of their respective teams for most part of the last two decades. I would love to see them play all the time. These people have played all around the world and won the hearts of millions of cricket loving fans.
I am a die-hard fan of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. I don't mind what people keep talking about his game. I only want him to play as long as he plays. Sachin happens to be the humble person, who inspite of being the great batsman of this era is still down to earth and always lets his bat answer the critics. In this same match, Sachin's contemporary, compatriot and the southpaw who is the God of offside cricket, Sourav Ganguly crossed the mile stone of scoring more than 7000 runs and is the only 4th Indian to have done so after Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. I respect Ganguly for what he has given Indian cricket, the agressive face and the winning habit. Though I always think Ganguly had to face the unnecessary political issues of the cricket board in India but if I had to believe the reports that surfaced during the latter part of his captaincy days, it looks like he was part of the same politics in his time.
Anyways, keeping all the politics apart and being a true fan of Indian Cricket, I strongly believe that Indian team is going to miss the lethal combination of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and Sourav Chandra Ganguly. The opening pair that ruled the world of ODI's in the late 90's and ealry 2000's. However, co-incidentally, Ganguly has been around when Sachin scored the most number of test hundreds surpassing Sunil Gavaskar and scored the most number of test centuries surpassing Brian Lara. Sourav has no doubt been the great captain's India has ever produced. In the current test Sourav scored his 16th test century, 2nd against Australia and first against the neumero uno team in India.
These cricketing legends have been our role models to many of the younger Indian generation, they have carried the burden of the Indian cricket in the last two decades. Have enjoyed the status of demi God and at the same time have seen the anger of the cricket crazy nation. These great players of Indian Cricket Team.. Sachin, Sourav, Rahul, Laxman and Anil have done there job and they have nothing to prove to the world, they have proved what they are capable of number of times.It's only that this cricket crazy, greedy nation always wants them to put India on top and have a short lived memory who almost always forget the achievements of these people and are ever ready to criticize them. As Sachin had put it after achieving this great feat that "turned the stones thrown at him into milestones and conquered those milestones." These people will live forever in the hearts of the cricket fans even after they leave the field.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The bug in the mind..search for inspiration.
I am searching for an inspiration to motivate me to work hard. These days I have spent most of the time at work reading the counter productive editorials on cricket and politics. Though I am a fan of cricket and politics, it is not fair on my part to spend the time reading the newspaper articles during office hours. Also, I think I need some strong motivation to work, to proove myself and to work hard. I wish to find one (don't strain your minds..I am referring to inspiration) soon and apply myself at work.
Other than the editorials there is a bug in my mind that is bothering. The bug is a dream that I had with me since childhood. I need to seriously consider turning this dream into reality / inspiration. If that works out, itz going to be amazing.
Other than the editorials there is a bug in my mind that is bothering. The bug is a dream that I had with me since childhood. I need to seriously consider turning this dream into reality / inspiration. If that works out, itz going to be amazing.
Pool..Networking.
Networking has been the buzz word since the day I started my consulting career. These 4 years in consulting has made me digest the word Netoworking. In the initial stages I always felt that one should be judged by his actions than by his networking skills; always felt that Networking was some kind of a demon which cannot be befriended by a person like me. Don't know if it is for good or bad, i feel, i am getting closer to the art of networking. I somehow realized the importance of networking and also feel that I have had lots of success with my network, though unknowingly. Its time that I master this skill of networking, as I have started to realize that my constant criticism to networking, resulted in understanding the importance and befriend the demon, I thought it was.
Itz the initial friction that needs to be overcome, after that it is always a smooth ride. I learnt the art of playing pool when I was in LA with my friend Mr.Cool and company. Pool was another art that I thought needed lots of skill to play. I remember the first ever team event in my first project in LA, at a billiards place. Everyone was playing pool, and it was all a new game for me which I never tried. That day I spent watching other folks play and chatting with the elderly crowd about the experiences in consulting. Don't know if that served as an inspiration, couple of months later i made my first move towards snooker in the neighbourhood of Irwindale, as usual the credit goes to my friend Mr.Cool for making me take the first steps. After the initial hiccups, the game improved as we know "practice makes a man perfect!". Though there were several other factors (that cannot be revealed here) that inspired us to play the game or do i put it this way 'inspired us to visit the pool place'. Although our other intentions were not successful, we improved the game. After about 3-4 months into my first assignment pool turned out to be one of the must do activities for the weekend. This made us play a better pool that we initially thought we were, ofcourse in our own style. I attribute 90% of my success to my luck and the other 10% to better form. Sometimes we played the game to get ourselves relieved of the regular day to day project pressure. As I always do, play any game with the intention of winning resulted in further interest in the game. After go-live of that project, and departure of friends I landed into the other project based in Mid-West America, my cool friend into UK.
Now in this mid-western town, the project is much more relaxed than the first project. There is always lack of inspiration to work, however searching for reasons to keep myself motivated to be a good consultant. After couple of months into the new project, most of the team had joined together for the first time; as most of the folks were on tax break for sometime. The coming together required a party to get to know everyone in the team. A party at Dave and Busters...
Unlike the first assignment, most of the junta in the project was older folks. As always, I believe I am still the youngest in the project. Living up to the Indian punctuality reached the place 30 minutes after the scheduled time of the event. By the time we were in, most of the junta was already into the serious business of satisfying their hunger. My initial reactions "man where did I land, in the group of oldies; don't know how to spend the rest of the evening." Slowly, junta (the crowd) started moving towards the pool tables. I was with the regular desi team, chatting about the food, etc. The adrenalin gush inside made me slowly move towards the pool table. Waited for an opportunity, grabbed a queue and started playing. I had to lie to my partner that I was playing for the first time. A few minutes into the game, the truth was revealed and I was getting into the rythm. After couple of games I was the man of the hour, being watched by the everyone in the crowd. Thanks to our weekends in the remote pool place in LA, I was transformed into the most watched player at the party, with the shots that found there own targets.
The movement to cherish was the one, when the director of the project was asked by one of the senior managers in the project to pick any one from the crowd and play the game. The Director picked "ME". Wow! There I go to play the game of pool with the Director of the project. Awesome! Started off definsively, got into the rhythm, was never in a position to win; at the same time never far away from my winning. However to one of the daring shots that I took, which did not materialise into the desired result, I lost the game. However, this is one of the first opportunities that gave me the much required recognition in the eyes of the senior folks in the project. Pool gave some time to have a one on one discussion with the director about the project, after the game. By the end of the party, I played 3 games and lost all the 3. However I felt, I was the winner..per the saying "Jo haar kar bee jeet tah hai,,,woh Bazigar keh lata hai". The only thought that was in my mind returning back home was to ..Networking is not a demon any more, but turning out to be good friend..and I think, I have overcome the inertia...I should make it to be a smooth ride...
Itz the initial friction that needs to be overcome, after that it is always a smooth ride. I learnt the art of playing pool when I was in LA with my friend Mr.Cool and company. Pool was another art that I thought needed lots of skill to play. I remember the first ever team event in my first project in LA, at a billiards place. Everyone was playing pool, and it was all a new game for me which I never tried. That day I spent watching other folks play and chatting with the elderly crowd about the experiences in consulting. Don't know if that served as an inspiration, couple of months later i made my first move towards snooker in the neighbourhood of Irwindale, as usual the credit goes to my friend Mr.Cool for making me take the first steps. After the initial hiccups, the game improved as we know "practice makes a man perfect!". Though there were several other factors (that cannot be revealed here) that inspired us to play the game or do i put it this way 'inspired us to visit the pool place'. Although our other intentions were not successful, we improved the game. After about 3-4 months into my first assignment pool turned out to be one of the must do activities for the weekend. This made us play a better pool that we initially thought we were, ofcourse in our own style. I attribute 90% of my success to my luck and the other 10% to better form. Sometimes we played the game to get ourselves relieved of the regular day to day project pressure. As I always do, play any game with the intention of winning resulted in further interest in the game. After go-live of that project, and departure of friends I landed into the other project based in Mid-West America, my cool friend into UK.
Now in this mid-western town, the project is much more relaxed than the first project. There is always lack of inspiration to work, however searching for reasons to keep myself motivated to be a good consultant. After couple of months into the new project, most of the team had joined together for the first time; as most of the folks were on tax break for sometime. The coming together required a party to get to know everyone in the team. A party at Dave and Busters...
Unlike the first assignment, most of the junta in the project was older folks. As always, I believe I am still the youngest in the project. Living up to the Indian punctuality reached the place 30 minutes after the scheduled time of the event. By the time we were in, most of the junta was already into the serious business of satisfying their hunger. My initial reactions "man where did I land, in the group of oldies; don't know how to spend the rest of the evening." Slowly, junta (the crowd) started moving towards the pool tables. I was with the regular desi team, chatting about the food, etc. The adrenalin gush inside made me slowly move towards the pool table. Waited for an opportunity, grabbed a queue and started playing. I had to lie to my partner that I was playing for the first time. A few minutes into the game, the truth was revealed and I was getting into the rythm. After couple of games I was the man of the hour, being watched by the everyone in the crowd. Thanks to our weekends in the remote pool place in LA, I was transformed into the most watched player at the party, with the shots that found there own targets.
The movement to cherish was the one, when the director of the project was asked by one of the senior managers in the project to pick any one from the crowd and play the game. The Director picked "ME". Wow! There I go to play the game of pool with the Director of the project. Awesome! Started off definsively, got into the rhythm, was never in a position to win; at the same time never far away from my winning. However to one of the daring shots that I took, which did not materialise into the desired result, I lost the game. However, this is one of the first opportunities that gave me the much required recognition in the eyes of the senior folks in the project. Pool gave some time to have a one on one discussion with the director about the project, after the game. By the end of the party, I played 3 games and lost all the 3. However I felt, I was the winner..per the saying "Jo haar kar bee jeet tah hai,,,woh Bazigar keh lata hai". The only thought that was in my mind returning back home was to ..Networking is not a demon any more, but turning out to be good friend..and I think, I have overcome the inertia...I should make it to be a smooth ride...
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Four Years in Consulting...the journey to consulting and till now..
Today we ( a bunch of 25 people called as TMP-2 in our company), completed four years of our consulting profession. The four year ride has been an awesome journey to say the least. 25 of us who were from different geographic locations in India, different languages, different degrees some of the engineers and some MCA's started our career together, in this one of the Big Four Consulting Firms. It was like a dream come true for most of us, as for me it was more than a dream. I was just looking for a job in any damn company but see where I am, in consulting that too in one of the Big Four, awesome! Here goes my story from getting out of the college and landing into the consulting firm..
I had told this to many of my friends, the situation in which I was when I landed up in this job. It was already three months that I was out of my college. I was desperately looking for a job, any damn job. Initially, I was confident that I will join some software company for sure, the reason for my confidence was in the NIIT certification program that I b(r)arely managed to complete. After some days out of college realised how difficult it was to get in a good company. I then started looking for a call center job, as it was easy to get in. I attended interviews for some companies, got rejected then realised even it was a difficult to crack. Then practised some techniques of public speaking etc. The eye opener was the call center interview that I planned to attend for Wipro, where I found hundreds of aspirants waiting outside the famous Amruta Castle in Hyderabad. The event had left tears in my eyes, as I found that it was really tough to get a job. Then I started looking for any kind of call center opening. Attended an interview for HP and then for Wipro Spectramind through some consultancy. The only aspiration that I had was to get a job. It is not something great to say, but there were days I used to take only one bus out of my place to the most connected bus stop in the city and walk from there to the desired location. Or plan my trip such that any of my friends leaving to the office can drop me somewhere close to the destination.
Some of the my college friends were already in this dollar nation to pursue their masters, some getting placed in good companies in India had increased the pressure on me to such an extent that I was out in town looking for the call center openings. My NIIT certification also started helping me in finding some jobs, though I hardly managed to get an interview call. There was one company that called us for an interview and offered us a job with 3000/- Rs per month with three years of bond. I seriously considered this position, if not for the advise of my well wishers and some great friends I would have accepted the offer. With the advise of friends and well wishers dropped the idea of joining that firm. Meanwhile, my search continued for the call center positions, and with things looking to fall in place, I got a call for the final rounds of interviews with HP and Wipro. Then I thought I was getting there and was thinking I will be in Bangalore or in Pune within weeks. Fortunately / unfortunately both interview calls happened to be on the same day and same time. I preferred attending HP as it was an international firm and to my mysterious luck, I was the only one who was shortlisted but I was subjected to another written test. The HR guy looked impressed about me and gave me his contact details to call for the results in a week. And from there made my way to the next interview as I was already late. Thought I would take a pit stop at my beloved Kanna's place near tank bund and will make it to interview after that. If not for the lecture from my beloved friend on that day, I would have made it to the interview and who knows what it had for me? Kanna asked me if my family would not survive, if I don't get a job. The answer was my family would survive, but I needed job. Then the choice was simple I need to look for a better job not a call center. Not knowing if skipping the interview was a good decision I was a little upset. Skipping of interview made me listen another lecture from my other friend who thought I should not have missed it.
Another event, that made me not just think but act for getting a job was the TCS written exam. I and RC left as early as 6 AM in the morning to go to Hitech city and attend the TCS Exam. And to my surprise I would thousands of people standing in front of TCS. God! that really scared the shit out of me. And I realise how foolish it was for me, not to prepare seriously for the campus recruitment's. I realised it was high time, i start working on aptitude exams.Though I managed to attend TCS written Exam, I could not clear it.
As my search for the jobs was going on, one fine evening RC turns up at my place and gives me a photo copy of some application form of one of this big four companies who were looking for '04 pass outs for immediate recruitment. That being the last day of filling in application forms, my dear friend gets a photo copy for me. Now, having no chance to make it to college that day, I decided to fill in the application form and give it to some Mr.Rao, whom I have never met before. RC had realised that I could not make it to college to get the application submitted, got me the mobile number of Mr.Rao. I called this guy and tell him that I am from the college and is looking out for job and want to apply for the job. He asks me to meet at M'patnam bus stop early in the morning on the next day. I managed to get to the bus stop on time, give a call to that guy and as we have not met earlier, the only way was to display the name of this company as a placard. This guy recognises me by that placard takes my application for submission and wishes good luck.
Now I got back to another friend of mine, a very good and childhood friend. Don't know if it there is something special, but we have been together in the tuition, college both intermediate (for a year), engineering and now in job in the same practice. This guy offered me the valuable advise for preparation both technically and for interview too. As far as I remember this was the only exam that I prepared seriously. We (RC and Me) turn up at the exam, again was a little scared looking at the crowd standing outside the exam center. Never imagined I would get through, but seriously wanted to get a job. One of the employees (who happened to be my senior in the company) was advertising about the company. The only thought that I had in my mind was come on dude, give a job I am not concerned about what you will make me do. I write the exam, just as always struck to whatever I knew and left the other questions. Coming out of the examination hall was confident that if I get through the exam, I will celebrate. I felt the exam was tough and had remote chance of getting through it. Did not wait at the examination hall to view the results. I return to RC's place, went to Church along with him, we came back and gave a call to one of our friends to know about the results. The result was 50% satisfactory as it was both good and bad, it was only me who made it through the exam and unfortunately RC could not clear the exam. Unfortunately he was the only guy who did not make it, the other fellows from my college made it to the interviews.
Now for the interview preparation, I called up another friend of mine Mr.Nrs to help me get through the interview. This guy is immensely talented, made it almost all the interviews in the campus but could not clear the interview rounds. The veteran of all these interviews was helping me clear the very first interview in a big firm. This guy explained me all the electronics subjects that I need to know. The interviews were over the period of three days and luckily I was the only person to have the interview on third day. All others from my college group had the interview in the first two days. The inputs these guys gave me were immensely useful. I remember telling to one of my friends that if the interview is more of HR, I will star and if it is technical I am gone.
The D-day was here, as I always did for exams. I went to Maa Durga temple at Nampally bus stop and hurried from there to interview. I boarded a bus, and I was sweating like anything, the conductor in the bus commented if I was sending all the liquids out of my body through my skin instead of the actual organs to be used for the purpose. I paid little interest to the comment. Made it to the office just 15 mins ahead of the scheduled interview. I was awestruck by the place, was thinking I was fortunate to be there. One of my to be senior verifies my certificates and tells me that I was just 15 mins away from the interview. He asked me to be present at the interviews at least 30 mins in advance from next time on, and luckily for me I did not have to attend another interview.
I sat in the lobby, first I was thrilled to hear the security guard call me as 'Sir' with respect. There I was given a light blue envelope of two pages and was asked to fill in the contents. I had to fill in all the stuff like personal details, hobbies etc. I filled it with whatever I could think of and sat ideally for sometime. There was a girl sitting adjacent to me, as she was ok, I didn't pay enough attention to her. Now there comes a big guy from the door in front of me, walking confidently as if he has won a battle. Looking at the guy, the first thought in my mind was "this guy will definitely get the job". This guy comes out and informs the lady sitting beside me to go to the interview room. There I sit ideally for sometime, some how the form I was supposed to fill, falls down and opens up. The I realise that there are many more columns that I am supposed to fill and my work was just half done. With the very little time left I fill in all the columns with whatever came to my mind. After that I realise that I had used up all the available space in the form, but forgot to mention the name of my role-model favourite cricketer "SRT". On the top of the last page, I wrote a line as SRT is my role model.
In some time, this girl comes out of the door tells me I was called for the interview. I go out, and another person who was my senior takes the form from my hand and asks me to wait outside the room for sometime. In the meantime I prepare mentally for the interview. I made up a strategy, I will imagine that I am talking to Dan, my best friend. Now that will get rid of the fear of talking to strangers. I was called for the interview in couple of minutes, there I found some three people sitting on the other side of the table. They ask me, introduce myself. As I was well prepared I told about myself as prepared on the advice of my friend Mr.RA. Now the interviewers asked me about my favourite topics, I told them all the hardcore electronic subjects. To my luck, none of them was from electronics background. They asked me about the very basic questions like the type of electrical connections that you have in your home, i.e. parallel, and the difference between series and parallel connection. Then asked me put down some algorithm for array calculations and I wrote some scrap there. In the meantime there enters Mr.KVS, he takes a looks at the form that I filled in and finds the line "Sachin is my role model". He brought to my notice, the then controversy of India declaring the test match innings when Sachin was on verge a double century(194*) in Pakistan. He said that Sachin plays for himself and not for the team. Being an ardent fan of SRT, that very statement made me contradict strongly. I defended Sachin in all the possible ways that I could. In the meantime it was time for Lunch, and the guy my senior who called me interview room, interrupted telling that I was a great fan of SRT. And Mr.KVS introduces himself to me and says the interview was over as it was time for lunch.
Coming out of the office, I was high in confidence not with the thought that I may get selected, but with the feeling that I was called as one of the great fans of SRT. The thought that struck my mind out of the office was I was least bothered about the job but I feel great because I was called one of the great fans of SRT. Contrary to my previous call center interviews, this time I head directly home instead of my friends places'. There was a mythological telugu movie "Ramanjaneya Yuddam" played on the television though I don't exactly remember the name of the movie, it was about the war between Lord Rama and his dearest disciple Veer Hanuman. I watched the whole movie and was praying to God to get me selected. I was informed to check the results on my mail id in the evening around 7 PM. I make it to the Internet cafe near S'Nagar wait for my turn to get the system and logged into the hot mail email Id of mine to look for the results. To my disappointment I did not find any email. I closed the browser logged into yahoo account checked the emails and found I missed one of the written exam calls for another company. Contrary to the habit of checking all the non sense pornographic stuff on the Internet, I re logged in to the hot mail and found there was an email in Junk folder.Wanted to check what it was and to my disbelief and the boundless happiness I found a message with the subject line "Congratulations! Welcome to Deloitte." There I go....ecstatic, excited, happy, joyous what not! Ran to RA's house thanking GOD for having got me through the interview and getting me the job.Could not find in home, his mother told me he was at another friends place, ran to An's place and found him there. RA congratulates me right away looking at my happy and excited behaviour. We buy some sweets and went to share this most happiest feeling till date with my mom and family. Called up all the friends and was on cloud nine. I was very very happy to see the message that day, probably one of the best messages I had seen till date and have it archived in my mail box. My mom broke into tears, my family was happy finally. Went to my grandmother's place with my friend Mr.SAJ. It was really late in the night, and my grandparents were a little shocked to find me at that time of the night. They were really happy on hearing the news and were really satisfied by remembering the way my parents brought us up in spite of the troubles they had to face. Bid good bye from grandparents home and as always went out to celebrate the moment with my regular gang of best buddies Dan, AR, PVR, SAJ and MM. Dinner at 1AM.
The next day, my father turns up from his night shift and was very happy to know the news. Gave me a hug and patted on my back, the message that understood ..'Well Done Son!". However the real surprise was yet to come. He asked me how the interview went, and was surprised to know that the interview was about Sachin rather than on the subject. Might have thought that my cricket madness and Sachin madness had at least gave me something in life to be someone. My father was /is a strong critic of cricket because of time consumed by the game. However the very first time I saw him happy because of Cricket. But even on that day, though I was already a day into my celebrations I was not completely convinced that I got a job. To my surprise some of the very favourite candidates missed out on the occasion but I made it. The very first time in my life I was going to accept an offer letter from a company, I cracked the very first interview in a consulting firm, awesome, unbelievable! I tried to get to other Internet cafes near by and wanted to to view that message again, but had initial trouble as the Internet cafes were facing some network issues in the area. However, I was to receive the offer letter the next day.
The next day was on the way to office, the bus broke down near Jubilee Hills Peddamma temple, prayed God and thanked Mataji! for having given me the job. Ran to get another bus and turned up at office in time, at least this time. Found some of these people from the bunch of 25 sitting next to me, standing in the lobby. I was high in confidence, but looking at some of these folks felt I had to be really competitive to survive here. We were led to the cafeteria (heard the word for the first time, was used to canteen all these days!), and could not believe what I was listening when SCrn, the HR Journalist who was giving us the offer letters revealed our compensation, the facilities what we would be getting. Thought for a while, were they all for us, one of the facilities that really made me jump was, we getting a cab to pick us up from home and drop us back at home for free. When SCrn called me with my full name, I turned to be his great admirer. He in fact is a great person, he later told us that we were the first batch of people recruited by him in our company and I was the last in the batch to get selected. He revealed that there were 936 candidates who attended the written exam, 161 were called for the interview, out of which 160 were interviewed and 36 were shortlisted. I felt lucky and proud that I was one among those 36 people. Out of these 36 people, 25 of us known as TMP-2 were put into this application called SAP, again the new term that I got to hear.
TMP-2 was like an extension of college days, we were put into a training room. Got through the period of one month training and a weeks induction period. The very first day of my cab to office, I found the same guy whom I thought will definitely make it to the job, none other than the big boss of our team. TMP-2 had been through some tough training periods, some collective efforts of assignment submissions, collective efforts in performing arts, tours and trips that were planned and re planned and re planned finally executed. Had a great time sticking together with these guys. Though some of them have moved on in search of good opportunities, some will move on in search of better opportunities, some have found there life long partners in the group and some have collected the gems. I personally share some life long friendships, good times, tough times and good relationships with this group also known as Virtularfila (aka TMP-2). Virtularfila is something which I can proudly claim that no dictionary will have it and no other person in this world will know about it, other than we, the TMP2.
I am thankful, to each and every person, my parents, teachers and friends in special, whose help, advise and encouragement has kept me afloat till now. Who have been with me with ups and downs, and brought me to where I am today. This would not have been possible without my friends, never in my Dreams could I imagine my existence without my friends. I would never be where I am today, if I would not have found these great human beings in my life. I am always thankful to God, for having given me such great friends! I wish these people will be with me for rest of my life too...as I feel the journey has just begun.....
I had told this to many of my friends, the situation in which I was when I landed up in this job. It was already three months that I was out of my college. I was desperately looking for a job, any damn job. Initially, I was confident that I will join some software company for sure, the reason for my confidence was in the NIIT certification program that I b(r)arely managed to complete. After some days out of college realised how difficult it was to get in a good company. I then started looking for a call center job, as it was easy to get in. I attended interviews for some companies, got rejected then realised even it was a difficult to crack. Then practised some techniques of public speaking etc. The eye opener was the call center interview that I planned to attend for Wipro, where I found hundreds of aspirants waiting outside the famous Amruta Castle in Hyderabad. The event had left tears in my eyes, as I found that it was really tough to get a job. Then I started looking for any kind of call center opening. Attended an interview for HP and then for Wipro Spectramind through some consultancy. The only aspiration that I had was to get a job. It is not something great to say, but there were days I used to take only one bus out of my place to the most connected bus stop in the city and walk from there to the desired location. Or plan my trip such that any of my friends leaving to the office can drop me somewhere close to the destination.
Some of the my college friends were already in this dollar nation to pursue their masters, some getting placed in good companies in India had increased the pressure on me to such an extent that I was out in town looking for the call center openings. My NIIT certification also started helping me in finding some jobs, though I hardly managed to get an interview call. There was one company that called us for an interview and offered us a job with 3000/- Rs per month with three years of bond. I seriously considered this position, if not for the advise of my well wishers and some great friends I would have accepted the offer. With the advise of friends and well wishers dropped the idea of joining that firm. Meanwhile, my search continued for the call center positions, and with things looking to fall in place, I got a call for the final rounds of interviews with HP and Wipro. Then I thought I was getting there and was thinking I will be in Bangalore or in Pune within weeks. Fortunately / unfortunately both interview calls happened to be on the same day and same time. I preferred attending HP as it was an international firm and to my mysterious luck, I was the only one who was shortlisted but I was subjected to another written test. The HR guy looked impressed about me and gave me his contact details to call for the results in a week. And from there made my way to the next interview as I was already late. Thought I would take a pit stop at my beloved Kanna's place near tank bund and will make it to interview after that. If not for the lecture from my beloved friend on that day, I would have made it to the interview and who knows what it had for me? Kanna asked me if my family would not survive, if I don't get a job. The answer was my family would survive, but I needed job. Then the choice was simple I need to look for a better job not a call center. Not knowing if skipping the interview was a good decision I was a little upset. Skipping of interview made me listen another lecture from my other friend who thought I should not have missed it.
Another event, that made me not just think but act for getting a job was the TCS written exam. I and RC left as early as 6 AM in the morning to go to Hitech city and attend the TCS Exam. And to my surprise I would thousands of people standing in front of TCS. God! that really scared the shit out of me. And I realise how foolish it was for me, not to prepare seriously for the campus recruitment's. I realised it was high time, i start working on aptitude exams.Though I managed to attend TCS written Exam, I could not clear it.
As my search for the jobs was going on, one fine evening RC turns up at my place and gives me a photo copy of some application form of one of this big four companies who were looking for '04 pass outs for immediate recruitment. That being the last day of filling in application forms, my dear friend gets a photo copy for me. Now, having no chance to make it to college that day, I decided to fill in the application form and give it to some Mr.Rao, whom I have never met before. RC had realised that I could not make it to college to get the application submitted, got me the mobile number of Mr.Rao. I called this guy and tell him that I am from the college and is looking out for job and want to apply for the job. He asks me to meet at M'patnam bus stop early in the morning on the next day. I managed to get to the bus stop on time, give a call to that guy and as we have not met earlier, the only way was to display the name of this company as a placard. This guy recognises me by that placard takes my application for submission and wishes good luck.
Now I got back to another friend of mine, a very good and childhood friend. Don't know if it there is something special, but we have been together in the tuition, college both intermediate (for a year), engineering and now in job in the same practice. This guy offered me the valuable advise for preparation both technically and for interview too. As far as I remember this was the only exam that I prepared seriously. We (RC and Me) turn up at the exam, again was a little scared looking at the crowd standing outside the exam center. Never imagined I would get through, but seriously wanted to get a job. One of the employees (who happened to be my senior in the company) was advertising about the company. The only thought that I had in my mind was come on dude, give a job I am not concerned about what you will make me do. I write the exam, just as always struck to whatever I knew and left the other questions. Coming out of the examination hall was confident that if I get through the exam, I will celebrate. I felt the exam was tough and had remote chance of getting through it. Did not wait at the examination hall to view the results. I return to RC's place, went to Church along with him, we came back and gave a call to one of our friends to know about the results. The result was 50% satisfactory as it was both good and bad, it was only me who made it through the exam and unfortunately RC could not clear the exam. Unfortunately he was the only guy who did not make it, the other fellows from my college made it to the interviews.
Now for the interview preparation, I called up another friend of mine Mr.Nrs to help me get through the interview. This guy is immensely talented, made it almost all the interviews in the campus but could not clear the interview rounds. The veteran of all these interviews was helping me clear the very first interview in a big firm. This guy explained me all the electronics subjects that I need to know. The interviews were over the period of three days and luckily I was the only person to have the interview on third day. All others from my college group had the interview in the first two days. The inputs these guys gave me were immensely useful. I remember telling to one of my friends that if the interview is more of HR, I will star and if it is technical I am gone.
The D-day was here, as I always did for exams. I went to Maa Durga temple at Nampally bus stop and hurried from there to interview. I boarded a bus, and I was sweating like anything, the conductor in the bus commented if I was sending all the liquids out of my body through my skin instead of the actual organs to be used for the purpose. I paid little interest to the comment. Made it to the office just 15 mins ahead of the scheduled interview. I was awestruck by the place, was thinking I was fortunate to be there. One of my to be senior verifies my certificates and tells me that I was just 15 mins away from the interview. He asked me to be present at the interviews at least 30 mins in advance from next time on, and luckily for me I did not have to attend another interview.
I sat in the lobby, first I was thrilled to hear the security guard call me as 'Sir' with respect. There I was given a light blue envelope of two pages and was asked to fill in the contents. I had to fill in all the stuff like personal details, hobbies etc. I filled it with whatever I could think of and sat ideally for sometime. There was a girl sitting adjacent to me, as she was ok, I didn't pay enough attention to her. Now there comes a big guy from the door in front of me, walking confidently as if he has won a battle. Looking at the guy, the first thought in my mind was "this guy will definitely get the job". This guy comes out and informs the lady sitting beside me to go to the interview room. There I sit ideally for sometime, some how the form I was supposed to fill, falls down and opens up. The I realise that there are many more columns that I am supposed to fill and my work was just half done. With the very little time left I fill in all the columns with whatever came to my mind. After that I realise that I had used up all the available space in the form, but forgot to mention the name of my role-model favourite cricketer "SRT". On the top of the last page, I wrote a line as SRT is my role model.
In some time, this girl comes out of the door tells me I was called for the interview. I go out, and another person who was my senior takes the form from my hand and asks me to wait outside the room for sometime. In the meantime I prepare mentally for the interview. I made up a strategy, I will imagine that I am talking to Dan, my best friend. Now that will get rid of the fear of talking to strangers. I was called for the interview in couple of minutes, there I found some three people sitting on the other side of the table. They ask me, introduce myself. As I was well prepared I told about myself as prepared on the advice of my friend Mr.RA. Now the interviewers asked me about my favourite topics, I told them all the hardcore electronic subjects. To my luck, none of them was from electronics background. They asked me about the very basic questions like the type of electrical connections that you have in your home, i.e. parallel, and the difference between series and parallel connection. Then asked me put down some algorithm for array calculations and I wrote some scrap there. In the meantime there enters Mr.KVS, he takes a looks at the form that I filled in and finds the line "Sachin is my role model". He brought to my notice, the then controversy of India declaring the test match innings when Sachin was on verge a double century(194*) in Pakistan. He said that Sachin plays for himself and not for the team. Being an ardent fan of SRT, that very statement made me contradict strongly. I defended Sachin in all the possible ways that I could. In the meantime it was time for Lunch, and the guy my senior who called me interview room, interrupted telling that I was a great fan of SRT. And Mr.KVS introduces himself to me and says the interview was over as it was time for lunch.
Coming out of the office, I was high in confidence not with the thought that I may get selected, but with the feeling that I was called as one of the great fans of SRT. The thought that struck my mind out of the office was I was least bothered about the job but I feel great because I was called one of the great fans of SRT. Contrary to my previous call center interviews, this time I head directly home instead of my friends places'. There was a mythological telugu movie "Ramanjaneya Yuddam" played on the television though I don't exactly remember the name of the movie, it was about the war between Lord Rama and his dearest disciple Veer Hanuman. I watched the whole movie and was praying to God to get me selected. I was informed to check the results on my mail id in the evening around 7 PM. I make it to the Internet cafe near S'Nagar wait for my turn to get the system and logged into the hot mail email Id of mine to look for the results. To my disappointment I did not find any email. I closed the browser logged into yahoo account checked the emails and found I missed one of the written exam calls for another company. Contrary to the habit of checking all the non sense pornographic stuff on the Internet, I re logged in to the hot mail and found there was an email in Junk folder.Wanted to check what it was and to my disbelief and the boundless happiness I found a message with the subject line "Congratulations! Welcome to Deloitte." There I go....ecstatic, excited, happy, joyous what not! Ran to RA's house thanking GOD for having got me through the interview and getting me the job.Could not find in home, his mother told me he was at another friends place, ran to An's place and found him there. RA congratulates me right away looking at my happy and excited behaviour. We buy some sweets and went to share this most happiest feeling till date with my mom and family. Called up all the friends and was on cloud nine. I was very very happy to see the message that day, probably one of the best messages I had seen till date and have it archived in my mail box. My mom broke into tears, my family was happy finally. Went to my grandmother's place with my friend Mr.SAJ. It was really late in the night, and my grandparents were a little shocked to find me at that time of the night. They were really happy on hearing the news and were really satisfied by remembering the way my parents brought us up in spite of the troubles they had to face. Bid good bye from grandparents home and as always went out to celebrate the moment with my regular gang of best buddies Dan, AR, PVR, SAJ and MM. Dinner at 1AM.
The next day, my father turns up from his night shift and was very happy to know the news. Gave me a hug and patted on my back, the message that understood ..'Well Done Son!". However the real surprise was yet to come. He asked me how the interview went, and was surprised to know that the interview was about Sachin rather than on the subject. Might have thought that my cricket madness and Sachin madness had at least gave me something in life to be someone. My father was /is a strong critic of cricket because of time consumed by the game. However the very first time I saw him happy because of Cricket. But even on that day, though I was already a day into my celebrations I was not completely convinced that I got a job. To my surprise some of the very favourite candidates missed out on the occasion but I made it. The very first time in my life I was going to accept an offer letter from a company, I cracked the very first interview in a consulting firm, awesome, unbelievable! I tried to get to other Internet cafes near by and wanted to to view that message again, but had initial trouble as the Internet cafes were facing some network issues in the area. However, I was to receive the offer letter the next day.
The next day was on the way to office, the bus broke down near Jubilee Hills Peddamma temple, prayed God and thanked Mataji! for having given me the job. Ran to get another bus and turned up at office in time, at least this time. Found some of these people from the bunch of 25 sitting next to me, standing in the lobby. I was high in confidence, but looking at some of these folks felt I had to be really competitive to survive here. We were led to the cafeteria (heard the word for the first time, was used to canteen all these days!), and could not believe what I was listening when SCrn, the HR Journalist who was giving us the offer letters revealed our compensation, the facilities what we would be getting. Thought for a while, were they all for us, one of the facilities that really made me jump was, we getting a cab to pick us up from home and drop us back at home for free. When SCrn called me with my full name, I turned to be his great admirer. He in fact is a great person, he later told us that we were the first batch of people recruited by him in our company and I was the last in the batch to get selected. He revealed that there were 936 candidates who attended the written exam, 161 were called for the interview, out of which 160 were interviewed and 36 were shortlisted. I felt lucky and proud that I was one among those 36 people. Out of these 36 people, 25 of us known as TMP-2 were put into this application called SAP, again the new term that I got to hear.
TMP-2 was like an extension of college days, we were put into a training room. Got through the period of one month training and a weeks induction period. The very first day of my cab to office, I found the same guy whom I thought will definitely make it to the job, none other than the big boss of our team. TMP-2 had been through some tough training periods, some collective efforts of assignment submissions, collective efforts in performing arts, tours and trips that were planned and re planned and re planned finally executed. Had a great time sticking together with these guys. Though some of them have moved on in search of good opportunities, some will move on in search of better opportunities, some have found there life long partners in the group and some have collected the gems. I personally share some life long friendships, good times, tough times and good relationships with this group also known as Virtularfila (aka TMP-2). Virtularfila is something which I can proudly claim that no dictionary will have it and no other person in this world will know about it, other than we, the TMP2.
I am thankful, to each and every person, my parents, teachers and friends in special, whose help, advise and encouragement has kept me afloat till now. Who have been with me with ups and downs, and brought me to where I am today. This would not have been possible without my friends, never in my Dreams could I imagine my existence without my friends. I would never be where I am today, if I would not have found these great human beings in my life. I am always thankful to God, for having given me such great friends! I wish these people will be with me for rest of my life too...as I feel the journey has just begun.....
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Super Swank!
Life is meant to be enjoyed and it is something like this:-
20,000$ per night in a luxury suite
68,000$ for the mobile
777$ for a meal of beef burger
500$ for a pair of sandals
18,000$ for a pair of jeans
3,000$ for a pair of cocktail
300,000$ worth of a wrist watch
150,000$ worth of a jewellery set
50,000$ for a night of dance floor exclusively for you
100,000$ per hour for a legend to perform exclusively for you in your suite
1600$ to 300,000$ per day to rent a luxury car in the class of Lamborghini, Bentley
265,000$ for a limited edition of Lamborghini
10,000$ for a ride of helicopter and a single round of golf exclusively for you
600,000$ for constructing the golf course
A rock star who enjoys this lifestyle :- "I am doing this because I can".
This lifestyle is real at least for those who can afford it, for rest of us we can always dream.
20,000$ per night in a luxury suite
68,000$ for the mobile
777$ for a meal of beef burger
500$ for a pair of sandals
18,000$ for a pair of jeans
3,000$ for a pair of cocktail
300,000$ worth of a wrist watch
150,000$ worth of a jewellery set
50,000$ for a night of dance floor exclusively for you
100,000$ per hour for a legend to perform exclusively for you in your suite
1600$ to 300,000$ per day to rent a luxury car in the class of Lamborghini, Bentley
265,000$ for a limited edition of Lamborghini
10,000$ for a ride of helicopter and a single round of golf exclusively for you
600,000$ for constructing the golf course
A rock star who enjoys this lifestyle :- "I am doing this because I can".
This lifestyle is real at least for those who can afford it, for rest of us we can always dream.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Taxi Drivers - Movies & Religion.
The last two times that I hired a taxi to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from my apartment in LA, I came across a Serbian and an Armenian taxi drivers. A bit unconventional to my actual silent nature, whenever I take a taxi I start conversing with the drivers. On both the occasions I was surprised to learn that these people watched Hindi movies at some point of time in their lives and were aware of the legendary actor Raj Kapoor. This kind of makes me feel proud of being an Indian, that our movies are global right from the age of black and white movies.
But the opinion that these people have in general about Indian cinema is something the Indian filmmakers should consider giving a thought. I was awe struck by the observation of this Armenian driver, who said that the Indian movies were all routine and were based on the same kind of stories. The examples he cited wee 'Sita aur Gita', 'Ram Aur Shyam' etc. of course he had a point in it. Even we Indians are also so much into these love stories that we rarely admire any experimental movies from our film makers. Today, I was watching some Hollywood movies, where a teacher takes up all the responsibility to provide better education to her students, by getting them away from the gangsters, and the other movie in which a lady fights for the rights of her pets, some time back watched a movie on terrorist attack being screened from the perspective of different persons involved in the incident etc. the movies in Hollywood are never really love stories but they are commercially hit. I am sure, that these movies have great collections in India too, then why not Indian film makers make some good pictures apart from the routine love stories. Anyways, I am sick of the typical Telugu movies and Hindi movies, though I rarely watch them.
The other important discussion I had with this Armenian driver was ( sorry for referring him as a driver, since I don't remember his name) the awareness that he has about India, its history and politics. He is an Armenian who moved to the states about 19 years ago and he had worked as a baker and a taxi driver. He was one of those few guys I came across, who knows about India and its politics. This guy was talking fluently about the Indian prime ministers Indira and Rajeev Gandhi, about the circumstances that led to their assassination, about the partition. Though he knows that India was partitioned into two countries based on religion. He thinks that the religious partition was because of the fight between the Muslims and Christians, where as in reality it was the problem of Muslims not able to live with the majority Hindus. Of course from the further discussion I had with this guy made me think that his opinion was based on his experiences in his own country where Muslims had issues with Christians. Before he explained about his country Armenia, he challenged me that he knew about India and asked me if I could tell anything about his nation. Unfortunately I did not know anything about his nation. Anyways, moving ahead with his experiences, he said that Armenia had issues with the neighbouring Muslim nations and around 1915 Turkey invaded Armenia, committed forced conversions of Christians to Muslims and massacred thousands of people who did not obey. His family was one of those who suffered the pains and it was during that period when the Armenians fled all around the world. He told that France was the first nation that rendered a helping hand to them in times of need and all the nations had identified that genocide expect 2 of the powerful nations..one in the west and the other in the east. These were those nations that locked horns as part of the cold war and could not take action against Turkey because of its strategic geographic importance. I was however sorry for having made him talk about his painful past.
Things like the religious fanaticism of some of the groups in Muslim is seriously a threat to the world, which has already created a large scale havoc and disturbance all around the world. When the guy was explaining about the problems which Muslims caused to Armenians I recollected the havoc these people created in my own country and my own city. I am not sure how many of you remember this, but there was a period before Hyderabad was liberated from the clutches of Nizam, when the Muslims conducted a large scale murders etc..against the people in Telangana and Hyderabad which was known as Razakar Period (Razakar Zamana - as my grand mother puts it). I don't understand why these people are so hell bent on there own agenda and forcing the conversions to Muslims and treating other religions as enemies. We still run into communal clashes in my city and my nation.
Though my best buddies are Muslims, but the tolerance in Islam and followers of this religion is too much to be improved. They need to understand that every religion in this world is created to help the humanity lead a better life and they should need to understand the importance of other religions and the good in other religions. Anyways, I have my own ideas and understanding about my religion and other religions. But it is always a best practice to follow your religion and have respect for other religions.
But the opinion that these people have in general about Indian cinema is something the Indian filmmakers should consider giving a thought. I was awe struck by the observation of this Armenian driver, who said that the Indian movies were all routine and were based on the same kind of stories. The examples he cited wee 'Sita aur Gita', 'Ram Aur Shyam' etc. of course he had a point in it. Even we Indians are also so much into these love stories that we rarely admire any experimental movies from our film makers. Today, I was watching some Hollywood movies, where a teacher takes up all the responsibility to provide better education to her students, by getting them away from the gangsters, and the other movie in which a lady fights for the rights of her pets, some time back watched a movie on terrorist attack being screened from the perspective of different persons involved in the incident etc. the movies in Hollywood are never really love stories but they are commercially hit. I am sure, that these movies have great collections in India too, then why not Indian film makers make some good pictures apart from the routine love stories. Anyways, I am sick of the typical Telugu movies and Hindi movies, though I rarely watch them.
The other important discussion I had with this Armenian driver was ( sorry for referring him as a driver, since I don't remember his name) the awareness that he has about India, its history and politics. He is an Armenian who moved to the states about 19 years ago and he had worked as a baker and a taxi driver. He was one of those few guys I came across, who knows about India and its politics. This guy was talking fluently about the Indian prime ministers Indira and Rajeev Gandhi, about the circumstances that led to their assassination, about the partition. Though he knows that India was partitioned into two countries based on religion. He thinks that the religious partition was because of the fight between the Muslims and Christians, where as in reality it was the problem of Muslims not able to live with the majority Hindus. Of course from the further discussion I had with this guy made me think that his opinion was based on his experiences in his own country where Muslims had issues with Christians. Before he explained about his country Armenia, he challenged me that he knew about India and asked me if I could tell anything about his nation. Unfortunately I did not know anything about his nation. Anyways, moving ahead with his experiences, he said that Armenia had issues with the neighbouring Muslim nations and around 1915 Turkey invaded Armenia, committed forced conversions of Christians to Muslims and massacred thousands of people who did not obey. His family was one of those who suffered the pains and it was during that period when the Armenians fled all around the world. He told that France was the first nation that rendered a helping hand to them in times of need and all the nations had identified that genocide expect 2 of the powerful nations..one in the west and the other in the east. These were those nations that locked horns as part of the cold war and could not take action against Turkey because of its strategic geographic importance. I was however sorry for having made him talk about his painful past.
Things like the religious fanaticism of some of the groups in Muslim is seriously a threat to the world, which has already created a large scale havoc and disturbance all around the world. When the guy was explaining about the problems which Muslims caused to Armenians I recollected the havoc these people created in my own country and my own city. I am not sure how many of you remember this, but there was a period before Hyderabad was liberated from the clutches of Nizam, when the Muslims conducted a large scale murders etc..against the people in Telangana and Hyderabad which was known as Razakar Period (Razakar Zamana - as my grand mother puts it). I don't understand why these people are so hell bent on there own agenda and forcing the conversions to Muslims and treating other religions as enemies. We still run into communal clashes in my city and my nation.
Though my best buddies are Muslims, but the tolerance in Islam and followers of this religion is too much to be improved. They need to understand that every religion in this world is created to help the humanity lead a better life and they should need to understand the importance of other religions and the good in other religions. Anyways, I have my own ideas and understanding about my religion and other religions. But it is always a best practice to follow your religion and have respect for other religions.
Beijing Olympics 2008
Back to blogging after a gap, there have been lot of changes in my life from the time I had my last post. I had to bid good bye to some of my close friends with whom I spent the last one year and to the team with whom I spent the last fifteen odd months. After all the emotional farewells, good bye parties and experiencing an earthquake etc., I finally moved from Hollywood to Mile High City.
08-08-08 was my last day in the project that I spent about 15 months where I had made some good friends and had some memorable times. Luckily I believe the timing of moving to a new project has coincided with the 29th Modern Olympics, as I had the opportunity to watch these games over the television from the hotel I will be staying for a month.
The move from LA, California to Denver,Colorado has been cool, a bit emotional, as LA was second home. The first impressions of Denver left a feeling that I moved from a metro to a normal town. But Denver, lived up to the expectations that I have had from this place as it has been cloudy and gloomy temperature all around the week. It has been raining for the last two days and it seems that there was a good snowfall in the mountains. The stay in the hotel has been peaceful and happy to say, the only mode of entertainment in watching Olympics and some inspiring movies. Apart from that an important update boys, I am back to driving and started off with my favourite Hyundai Sonata, I am not great fan/freak of cars. But one thing is for sure that I enjoy driving Sonata, this is that fuel efficient, comfortable and a nice car to drive in its class. I have had this strange experience of living all alone for a week time. If not for these Olympics and the car driving I would have really gone mad. And I sincerely realise, how my friends who lived in the distant towns of California alone for months together would have felt. At that point of time I could not completely understand the suffering they had, in spite of talking to your family and friends over the phone you seriously want to have someone with whom you can directly talk to. It's really difficult to stay alone, I was thinking it would be simple but I was wrong. Sincerely apologies to one of those old friends.
Anyways, back to the 29th Modern Olympics. To start with let me congratulate Abhinav Bindra for winning that first individual Gold Medal for India in the history of the games. Kudos to Bindra!! There are the Indian boxers who are still in contention for the medal and lets hope they come up with couple of medals for India and lets wish them all the best in their efforts. Stay tuned! At least this time around India should overcome the jinx of a single medal every Olympics.
Today was one of my lazy days for me as I did nothing but watch TV. But luckily enough I witnessed history made at the Olympics. Now the synonym for swimming at Olympics is none other than the phenomenal Micheal Phelps. What a performance! & What a determination! Amazing! Hats off to this guy who has re-defined the game for ever with 8/8 Golds in a single Olympics. As one of the promotional advertisements was saying, there are no adjectives to describe his achievement. At the age of 23 he has 14 gold medals to his name in just two Olympics. It's incredibly amazing achievement! He had won all the events that he has participated in. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch one of his finals which he has one with a different of 1/100th of a second. At one point of time it looked as if he has lost, but he never gave up and won the gold with a difference of 1/100th of a second. If not for the latest technology that we have today, to a naked eye it looked as Cavich (the fellow Serbian swimmer) who won the silver, appeared as the winner. Considering the amazing determination of Phelps, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Phenomenal Phelps!
Lightning..is the only word that can describe the Jamaican sprinter Ussain Bolt, the worlds fastest man ever. He won the men's 100mtr sprint in a record time of 9.68 seconds. One should watch the race to know the speed and the confidence with which he completed the race. If not for his premature celebrations he would have completed the race well withing 9.5 seconds, imagine the confidence the guy had to celebrate his victory even before he had completed the Olympics final. In the same race he has comfortable overcame his fellow compatriot and the former world record holder Asafa Powell, who like his previous Olympics had finished 5th.
Apart from this in the marathon race it was really interesting to see a 38 year Old Romanian Lady winning the marathon and a 41 year Woman swimmer winning the two silver medals in different events in swimming, that were just 40mins apart from each other. Congratulations to these people and hats off to their determination and will power.
These athletes are proving to the world that there is nothing called impossible if one gets going.
The one thing that was common among all these people was the support that they received from their family members. One really needs to have the backing from their parents, friends and the fellow country men to succeed. Now this brings to the approach Indians think about Olympics and the importance the government and the people have. Of course, the government does not have enough time to maintain peace in the country, they are busy in creating controversies, adding fuel to the already disrupted communal harmony in the country and busy announcing the ex-gratia to the people who are victims of the serial (often) bomb blasts, appeasing the minorities and trying to find the terrorists in the nation. Where can government buy time to think about sports and Olympics. The common man is busy watching cricket even though we continuously fail to win, and watching all the hybrid versions of the game that are played just for the sake of business, exploiting the market. The common man does not have time to think about other sports leave aside think about the people representing the nation in those sports.
Even the media always hovers around cricket as if that is the only game in this world. I was talking to my brother earlier this morning and he isn't even aware of that the games are not yet compelte. He was telling that all our atheletes are back home, where as infact we have three Indian boxers still in the contention for the medal by defeating the world champinions. Can imagine the amount of exposure the media gives to our atheletes! Pity!
Let's hope that India will leave a positive mark in the history of Olympics. As Hope is the only thing that drives life!
08-08-08 was my last day in the project that I spent about 15 months where I had made some good friends and had some memorable times. Luckily I believe the timing of moving to a new project has coincided with the 29th Modern Olympics, as I had the opportunity to watch these games over the television from the hotel I will be staying for a month.
The move from LA, California to Denver,Colorado has been cool, a bit emotional, as LA was second home. The first impressions of Denver left a feeling that I moved from a metro to a normal town. But Denver, lived up to the expectations that I have had from this place as it has been cloudy and gloomy temperature all around the week. It has been raining for the last two days and it seems that there was a good snowfall in the mountains. The stay in the hotel has been peaceful and happy to say, the only mode of entertainment in watching Olympics and some inspiring movies. Apart from that an important update boys, I am back to driving and started off with my favourite Hyundai Sonata, I am not great fan/freak of cars. But one thing is for sure that I enjoy driving Sonata, this is that fuel efficient, comfortable and a nice car to drive in its class. I have had this strange experience of living all alone for a week time. If not for these Olympics and the car driving I would have really gone mad. And I sincerely realise, how my friends who lived in the distant towns of California alone for months together would have felt. At that point of time I could not completely understand the suffering they had, in spite of talking to your family and friends over the phone you seriously want to have someone with whom you can directly talk to. It's really difficult to stay alone, I was thinking it would be simple but I was wrong. Sincerely apologies to one of those old friends.
Anyways, back to the 29th Modern Olympics. To start with let me congratulate Abhinav Bindra for winning that first individual Gold Medal for India in the history of the games. Kudos to Bindra!! There are the Indian boxers who are still in contention for the medal and lets hope they come up with couple of medals for India and lets wish them all the best in their efforts. Stay tuned! At least this time around India should overcome the jinx of a single medal every Olympics.
Today was one of my lazy days for me as I did nothing but watch TV. But luckily enough I witnessed history made at the Olympics. Now the synonym for swimming at Olympics is none other than the phenomenal Micheal Phelps. What a performance! & What a determination! Amazing! Hats off to this guy who has re-defined the game for ever with 8/8 Golds in a single Olympics. As one of the promotional advertisements was saying, there are no adjectives to describe his achievement. At the age of 23 he has 14 gold medals to his name in just two Olympics. It's incredibly amazing achievement! He had won all the events that he has participated in. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch one of his finals which he has one with a different of 1/100th of a second. At one point of time it looked as if he has lost, but he never gave up and won the gold with a difference of 1/100th of a second. If not for the latest technology that we have today, to a naked eye it looked as Cavich (the fellow Serbian swimmer) who won the silver, appeared as the winner. Considering the amazing determination of Phelps, he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Phenomenal Phelps!
Lightning..is the only word that can describe the Jamaican sprinter Ussain Bolt, the worlds fastest man ever. He won the men's 100mtr sprint in a record time of 9.68 seconds. One should watch the race to know the speed and the confidence with which he completed the race. If not for his premature celebrations he would have completed the race well withing 9.5 seconds, imagine the confidence the guy had to celebrate his victory even before he had completed the Olympics final. In the same race he has comfortable overcame his fellow compatriot and the former world record holder Asafa Powell, who like his previous Olympics had finished 5th.
Apart from this in the marathon race it was really interesting to see a 38 year Old Romanian Lady winning the marathon and a 41 year Woman swimmer winning the two silver medals in different events in swimming, that were just 40mins apart from each other. Congratulations to these people and hats off to their determination and will power.
These athletes are proving to the world that there is nothing called impossible if one gets going.
The one thing that was common among all these people was the support that they received from their family members. One really needs to have the backing from their parents, friends and the fellow country men to succeed. Now this brings to the approach Indians think about Olympics and the importance the government and the people have. Of course, the government does not have enough time to maintain peace in the country, they are busy in creating controversies, adding fuel to the already disrupted communal harmony in the country and busy announcing the ex-gratia to the people who are victims of the serial (often) bomb blasts, appeasing the minorities and trying to find the terrorists in the nation. Where can government buy time to think about sports and Olympics. The common man is busy watching cricket even though we continuously fail to win, and watching all the hybrid versions of the game that are played just for the sake of business, exploiting the market. The common man does not have time to think about other sports leave aside think about the people representing the nation in those sports.
Even the media always hovers around cricket as if that is the only game in this world. I was talking to my brother earlier this morning and he isn't even aware of that the games are not yet compelte. He was telling that all our atheletes are back home, where as infact we have three Indian boxers still in the contention for the medal by defeating the world champinions. Can imagine the amount of exposure the media gives to our atheletes! Pity!
Let's hope that India will leave a positive mark in the history of Olympics. As Hope is the only thing that drives life!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Democracy for Sale!
Democracy for sale...any buyers! that is the sorry state of my great nation known for its tolerance, for its values and culture. The government of the largest democratic country in the world is trading the so called representatives of the people like any other commodity in the market. Hail Indian Government!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
2008, July 4th Weekend!
This was the weekend that I enjoyed the most in US. My companion for the weekend was a consultant by profession, an instinctive poet by heart, who says life is just an imagination, who is radical in thoughts but never expresses them, who stares at life searching for its true meaning, who hates being caught in the boundaries of the society, who wants to revive the society and wants to live life on his own terms, Mr.Cool Dude! (in short Mr.Cool)
On Saturday of July 5th, after my interface monitoring job was done for the day and I was free for the next 24 hours we decided to go on a trip. I was thinking of visiting a new place, a cool place to hang out where there is no sense of urgency and away from this rat race of daily routine. We initially thought of visiting Lord Venkateshwara temple in Malibu, 60 miles to the north of LA and then drive to San Diego Wild Life Sanctuary 80 miles to the south of LA, considering LA as the midpoint of these two destinations. For some reason, common sense prevailed and we changed our final destination from San Diego to Santa Barbara, a historic town 80 miles to the north of Malibu. I started packing my stuff for next two days and was inconvenient in going to Mr.Cool's place to get his stuff. I was worried of other guests joining the party who do not match up with our frequency of thought and laid back attitude. Luckily, this guy carries an extra pair of clothing with him and we did not have to go to his place.
We visited the Lord Venkateshwara temple situated in the scenic mountains of Malibu - the place where Hollywood celebrities reside, even God keeps the company of celebrities hmm. As everyone does, we had our time praying, thanking HIM for whatever HE has given and asking HIM to grant our wishes that satisfy our needs and never satisfy our greed. Our Economics mam taught us "Man is a bundle of wants" (then what about woman?). We reached the kitchen to satisfy the hunger. As always our laziness dominated and we preferred to stay out of the queue, watch people around us and wait for the queue to end. Hunger made me think aggressively and the conservative Hindu in me woke up on seeing the females in the temple dressed in the modern outfits. I believe temple is not a place where one has to display the day to day fashion, it's OK to dress up in modern style if you are in a pub, disco etc., but not in a temple. For a moment I felt that I should be a Shiv Sainik and immediately bring in a law for the people to visit the temple only in the traditional outfits. However, the only thing I could do is to pray God, to gift my fellow Hindus sometime to think about there outfits when visiting a temple, no matter where they are. Anyways, common sense prevailed for us and we realized that there was no end to the queue, we troubled ourselves to stand in the queue and made it just in time to get the last serving of the curd rice. If not for the curd rice, we would have starved for the rest of the afternoon. After the blessings from God, we started our journey ahead to Santa Barbara, with no map, no GPS and without knowing what we will find there.
We made to the Pacific Coast Highway through the Malibu Canyon road, this route offers the beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean from the mountains of Malibu. I started playing with my new found toy and believe it to be a long time partner from now on for all the future tour programmes, referring to the new hobby that I am into, photography and my camera. We hit the north Pacific Coast Highway, the beautiful highway on the shores of Pacific with awesome views of the waves hitting the shores and the bright sunlight reflecting on the Pacific waters on one side and the mountains on the other side of the road. Mr.Cool is a big fan of Starbucks Coffee and we had our pit stop. As usual, Mr.Cool went for his tall chai latte extra hot and I preferred to have tall caramel frappucino. When we were relishing the coffee observing the people around us, two hot babes walk towards Starbucks from the opposite direction. Tring tring...we realise that there is a beach near by, made an about turn and made our way into the beach.
We found the beach to be crowded with lots of people, kids and babes ;-). Changed ourselves into shorts and a T-shirts, with a camera in hand made our way to the beach. Mr.Cool was in no mood to sit and relax, he went in for a swim into the waters and I was left with the job of taking pictures of the nature around. I found the birds near the beach interesting and spent lot of time picturing them, the waves hitting the shores and of course the obvious pictures at the beach made it to the list. Once Mr.Cool was tired of spending time in the water and I tired of admiring the beauty around, we decided to run along the beach to a distant hill. Left the camera and other belongings in the SUV and started with a mile long marathon. Ran for about half a mile, realised that we can make it to the end if we run, we started walking on the beach. On reaching the hill, I found some people standing on the cliff of the hill, as I always do, compelled Mr.Cool to walk till the top of the hill. Had the beautiful view of the ocean in front of us from the top of the hill, and cursed myself for having left the camera in the car. However, some beautiful things in nature need to be left alone without capturing. The beauty of the ocean was incredible and we sat there on the cliff of the hill watching the silent ocean in front of us. As it is a practice with me I shouted out my favourite quote "I love you" that was to the nature - 'I Love NATURE'. The beauty of the world, the nature makes me think about the days of the formation of the earth and the universe. I take sometime to thank God for having created such a beautiful place for us to live in. Mr. Cool was also lost into some serious thoughts. He was explaining me about his theory of the life being seen as a wheel that rotates and being at the center of the wheel or outside the wheel. Though his theory did not make way into my mind, as I was looking at the couple at the beach and was cursing myself having not found someone till now. :D
Walked back to our car, had some great pictures of the Sun hiding behind the near by mountains and bidding us good bye for the day. I assure you that sunset is one of the pictures that every individual who owns a camera wants to capture, I am no excuse for that. We had some awesome, magnificent pictures of the sunset. We met an old man who was playing guitar, living in his RV (recreational vehicle) with his pet dog. We had a chat session with him, he informed us that his ancestors were from Germany and he was a pilot. When we told him about our intentions to visit Santa Barbara, he gave us the inputs about the route that we need to follow and the places to look out for in Santa Barbara. He asked to visit "State Street" the most happening place in the historic downtown of Santa Barbara. Having received the route details from this person, we started our journey to Santa Barbara.
In about two hours, travelled for 80 miles and made it to State street in downtown of Santa Barbara around 10 PM. We had our dinner in one of the Italian as restaurants as the Indian restaurant was closed. My cool mate had some good time sipping the wine and talking the attractive waitress in the Italian restaurant. Apart from the beautiful waitress, the good thing about visiting any Italian restaurant would be the complementary bread that is offered. I consume the complimentary bread more than whatever I order. After the dinner we roamed around the roads of State street in Santa Barbara that was full off young crowd who were in there complete Holiday mood by drinking and dancing on the roads. State street had a number of night clubs. It is said that Santa Barbara is the place where the rich and famous live. Unfortunately we could not make it to any of the night clubs as our search landed us in a hotel that was away from state street and we were completely exhausted by the time we found the hotel at 2 Am in the morning, we preferred taking rest than going out to the night clubs. We settled in one of the expense hotels as that was the only source available to us, since all the hotels in the city were booked in wake of the long weekend. Not planning a trip in advance could be expense but believe me it will be adventurous and fun!
The next morning I woke up early and with my new found hobby of taking pictures, I spent time strolling on the beach in front of our lavish hotel. It was one of those rare holiday moments that I had spent, sitting at the Beach taking pictures of the waves, birds and people doing there morning walks. It was really a great holiday. The sun was up over our head by the time my friend got up and we had vacate the hotel after the breakfast. My mate and I strolled along the beach, along the colourful streets of the town and of course taking pictures. We went around the beautiful museums in the city and pictured the colourful / relaxed people walking, bicycling on the streets of Santa Barbara. Life seems to come to stand still in this beach town. Had our lunch at one of the Indian restaurants and I was particularly amazed to see curtains sold on the streets of the city with pictures of Lord Ganesha and other Gods, and the Hindi songs played on the streets. India going global! One captioned particularly drew my attention, "Desi Chori Videsi Gori".
Considering we had attend the office next day, we started our return journey early in the evening. But with the kind of holiday mood we were in, that wasn't going to be direct to home drive. We travelled along the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at the beautiful and secluded beaches along the coast of California. We stopped at all the possible beaches, spent time in taking pictures and some of the pictures turned our to be the most beautiful ones that we had ever taken. Thanks to Nikon D40 SLR. I
I wonder our stay in California would have been incomplete if we would not have made this trip. Also think of this trip as a tribute to the long friendship that I had with my companion on this trip. We were great friends, who had many things in common in our outlook towards life and the world. It was a great disappointment to both of us for having not stayed together. Imagine the number of trips we would have taken if we stayed together. Anyways, we were happy and glad that we were together and we made this trip.
This great friend of mine bid me farewell with these three words "Be Brave. Be Strong. And Don't be Shy/Hesitate." Thanks mate. I will surely follow your words and will stick to those qualities. However, I sincerely miss you and wish you all the success in whatever you want to achieve in your life! You are great human being, one of the best that I have come across in my life! As I mentioned earlier in this post, the trip was a tribute to our friendship.
On Saturday of July 5th, after my interface monitoring job was done for the day and I was free for the next 24 hours we decided to go on a trip. I was thinking of visiting a new place, a cool place to hang out where there is no sense of urgency and away from this rat race of daily routine. We initially thought of visiting Lord Venkateshwara temple in Malibu, 60 miles to the north of LA and then drive to San Diego Wild Life Sanctuary 80 miles to the south of LA, considering LA as the midpoint of these two destinations. For some reason, common sense prevailed and we changed our final destination from San Diego to Santa Barbara, a historic town 80 miles to the north of Malibu. I started packing my stuff for next two days and was inconvenient in going to Mr.Cool's place to get his stuff. I was worried of other guests joining the party who do not match up with our frequency of thought and laid back attitude. Luckily, this guy carries an extra pair of clothing with him and we did not have to go to his place.
We visited the Lord Venkateshwara temple situated in the scenic mountains of Malibu - the place where Hollywood celebrities reside, even God keeps the company of celebrities hmm. As everyone does, we had our time praying, thanking HIM for whatever HE has given and asking HIM to grant our wishes that satisfy our needs and never satisfy our greed. Our Economics mam taught us "Man is a bundle of wants" (then what about woman?). We reached the kitchen to satisfy the hunger. As always our laziness dominated and we preferred to stay out of the queue, watch people around us and wait for the queue to end. Hunger made me think aggressively and the conservative Hindu in me woke up on seeing the females in the temple dressed in the modern outfits. I believe temple is not a place where one has to display the day to day fashion, it's OK to dress up in modern style if you are in a pub, disco etc., but not in a temple. For a moment I felt that I should be a Shiv Sainik and immediately bring in a law for the people to visit the temple only in the traditional outfits. However, the only thing I could do is to pray God, to gift my fellow Hindus sometime to think about there outfits when visiting a temple, no matter where they are. Anyways, common sense prevailed for us and we realized that there was no end to the queue, we troubled ourselves to stand in the queue and made it just in time to get the last serving of the curd rice. If not for the curd rice, we would have starved for the rest of the afternoon. After the blessings from God, we started our journey ahead to Santa Barbara, with no map, no GPS and without knowing what we will find there.
We made to the Pacific Coast Highway through the Malibu Canyon road, this route offers the beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean from the mountains of Malibu. I started playing with my new found toy and believe it to be a long time partner from now on for all the future tour programmes, referring to the new hobby that I am into, photography and my camera. We hit the north Pacific Coast Highway, the beautiful highway on the shores of Pacific with awesome views of the waves hitting the shores and the bright sunlight reflecting on the Pacific waters on one side and the mountains on the other side of the road. Mr.Cool is a big fan of Starbucks Coffee and we had our pit stop. As usual, Mr.Cool went for his tall chai latte extra hot and I preferred to have tall caramel frappucino. When we were relishing the coffee observing the people around us, two hot babes walk towards Starbucks from the opposite direction. Tring tring...we realise that there is a beach near by, made an about turn and made our way into the beach.
We found the beach to be crowded with lots of people, kids and babes ;-). Changed ourselves into shorts and a T-shirts, with a camera in hand made our way to the beach. Mr.Cool was in no mood to sit and relax, he went in for a swim into the waters and I was left with the job of taking pictures of the nature around. I found the birds near the beach interesting and spent lot of time picturing them, the waves hitting the shores and of course the obvious pictures at the beach made it to the list. Once Mr.Cool was tired of spending time in the water and I tired of admiring the beauty around, we decided to run along the beach to a distant hill. Left the camera and other belongings in the SUV and started with a mile long marathon. Ran for about half a mile, realised that we can make it to the end if we run, we started walking on the beach. On reaching the hill, I found some people standing on the cliff of the hill, as I always do, compelled Mr.Cool to walk till the top of the hill. Had the beautiful view of the ocean in front of us from the top of the hill, and cursed myself for having left the camera in the car. However, some beautiful things in nature need to be left alone without capturing. The beauty of the ocean was incredible and we sat there on the cliff of the hill watching the silent ocean in front of us. As it is a practice with me I shouted out my favourite quote "I love you" that was to the nature - 'I Love NATURE'. The beauty of the world, the nature makes me think about the days of the formation of the earth and the universe. I take sometime to thank God for having created such a beautiful place for us to live in. Mr. Cool was also lost into some serious thoughts. He was explaining me about his theory of the life being seen as a wheel that rotates and being at the center of the wheel or outside the wheel. Though his theory did not make way into my mind, as I was looking at the couple at the beach and was cursing myself having not found someone till now. :D
Walked back to our car, had some great pictures of the Sun hiding behind the near by mountains and bidding us good bye for the day. I assure you that sunset is one of the pictures that every individual who owns a camera wants to capture, I am no excuse for that. We had some awesome, magnificent pictures of the sunset. We met an old man who was playing guitar, living in his RV (recreational vehicle) with his pet dog. We had a chat session with him, he informed us that his ancestors were from Germany and he was a pilot. When we told him about our intentions to visit Santa Barbara, he gave us the inputs about the route that we need to follow and the places to look out for in Santa Barbara. He asked to visit "State Street" the most happening place in the historic downtown of Santa Barbara. Having received the route details from this person, we started our journey to Santa Barbara.
In about two hours, travelled for 80 miles and made it to State street in downtown of Santa Barbara around 10 PM. We had our dinner in one of the Italian as restaurants as the Indian restaurant was closed. My cool mate had some good time sipping the wine and talking the attractive waitress in the Italian restaurant. Apart from the beautiful waitress, the good thing about visiting any Italian restaurant would be the complementary bread that is offered. I consume the complimentary bread more than whatever I order. After the dinner we roamed around the roads of State street in Santa Barbara that was full off young crowd who were in there complete Holiday mood by drinking and dancing on the roads. State street had a number of night clubs. It is said that Santa Barbara is the place where the rich and famous live. Unfortunately we could not make it to any of the night clubs as our search landed us in a hotel that was away from state street and we were completely exhausted by the time we found the hotel at 2 Am in the morning, we preferred taking rest than going out to the night clubs. We settled in one of the expense hotels as that was the only source available to us, since all the hotels in the city were booked in wake of the long weekend. Not planning a trip in advance could be expense but believe me it will be adventurous and fun!
The next morning I woke up early and with my new found hobby of taking pictures, I spent time strolling on the beach in front of our lavish hotel. It was one of those rare holiday moments that I had spent, sitting at the Beach taking pictures of the waves, birds and people doing there morning walks. It was really a great holiday. The sun was up over our head by the time my friend got up and we had vacate the hotel after the breakfast. My mate and I strolled along the beach, along the colourful streets of the town and of course taking pictures. We went around the beautiful museums in the city and pictured the colourful / relaxed people walking, bicycling on the streets of Santa Barbara. Life seems to come to stand still in this beach town. Had our lunch at one of the Indian restaurants and I was particularly amazed to see curtains sold on the streets of the city with pictures of Lord Ganesha and other Gods, and the Hindi songs played on the streets. India going global! One captioned particularly drew my attention, "Desi Chori Videsi Gori".
Considering we had attend the office next day, we started our return journey early in the evening. But with the kind of holiday mood we were in, that wasn't going to be direct to home drive. We travelled along the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at the beautiful and secluded beaches along the coast of California. We stopped at all the possible beaches, spent time in taking pictures and some of the pictures turned our to be the most beautiful ones that we had ever taken. Thanks to Nikon D40 SLR. I
I wonder our stay in California would have been incomplete if we would not have made this trip. Also think of this trip as a tribute to the long friendship that I had with my companion on this trip. We were great friends, who had many things in common in our outlook towards life and the world. It was a great disappointment to both of us for having not stayed together. Imagine the number of trips we would have taken if we stayed together. Anyways, we were happy and glad that we were together and we made this trip.
This great friend of mine bid me farewell with these three words "Be Brave. Be Strong. And Don't be Shy/Hesitate." Thanks mate. I will surely follow your words and will stick to those qualities. However, I sincerely miss you and wish you all the success in whatever you want to achieve in your life! You are great human being, one of the best that I have come across in my life! As I mentioned earlier in this post, the trip was a tribute to our friendship.
Go Live!
Post Go Live, was fine. I cannot get into details as I had received some threats and I do not want to risk my life putting in the details of the project. However, I recollect that I started blogging with the intent of penning down all my experiences in corporate life. At some point of time I even thought of calling my blog as "Corporate Classics!". Eventually, found this name "Sandrokottos" interesting and struck to it. So the motive of starting a blog still takes precedence and I pen down all the corporate day to day offerings in the blog. I am helpless my friends. By the way, for a change the last couple of weekends have been awesome! I had a great break from the corporate mumbo jumbo and go live effects. It looks like with the project going live, I got my life back and starting living my life, not just surviving.
I went live and had a great time. The details to follow in the next post.
I went live and had a great time. The details to follow in the next post.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Post Go Live and Assumptions!
To start with, I missed my sweet sister's birthday for the very first time. Last year, I could fly home on a short visit and managed to be in India just in time to celebrate her birthday. But this time becuase of the Go Live schedule could not make it. This is the first time that I actually failed to greet my sister in person. I remember a week short visit to my home last year. Time flies by very fast.
Anyways, as expected the Go Live of my project has been smooth, without any major roadblocks. As it is common in implementation projects, we came across issues though they were not really major. Still as the system has not yet stabilised, people aren't yet celebrating. Specially the management, they expect many more issues in the days to come and are putting the teams on high alert.
Today, i was monitoring one of my programs that went live. I had to spend the night just watching the screen for the status flag to change to the chequered flag from green. Why to stay awake whole night? Just run the job, sleep and wake up in the morning to get the status. Boss, project mein HR module go live ho raha hai, and we are lagging behind schedule. So I had to stay awake as I had to wait for the flag to go chequered and have to tap the other guy waiting for my call to move ahead with the next job. This is all part of the go live hungama. And we can't deny anything at this stage of game in the project, since we are already live.
Why did I speak about staying awake whole night? Was it to express about the go live hungama..definitely not ..hmmm..yes to some extent. While I was awake for most part of the night I kept myslef busy by reading some of the popular blogs on the net. Wow man!, it is amazing to browse through the blogs and the beautiful ways in which people express themselves. Simply awesome! By the way I have to tell, that I have an assignment to read an updated post in my guru's blog (referring to the blog that one of my great friends). I was supposed to complete this assignment couple of days before. And as I always do in my project / personnel life missed the dead line this time though I had a valid reason for missing this, you might expect because of the go live hungama...yeah partially true..but the real reason is I actually forgot my guru's blog.l :( . As my TL always puts it, that I expect things to work, assume things to be executed successfully on the first attempt by being very optimisitic, and when things don't work in reality I look surprised. My actions make me think his feedback is correct.., this time around I assumed that my great friend will have his blog listed on his orkut profile as most people would do. If that was the big assumption, I had a back up plan too. As I rely little on my memory these days not because my memory power has come down, I have grown lazy not trying to remember things but document things, looks like the corporate life style has got to my head...documenting things. Anyways, back to the topic, I hardly tried to remember believing that I would definitely forget, I used the flag option on the blogs window, again ASSUMING that his blog will be added to my favourites list somewhere in my blog, which I never tested and totally relied on it. Now I find that even the second assumption went for a toss and I don't have my friends blog. If this was not enough, I had the third back up planc, again an ASSUMPTION, that i might find it in one of the many forwards that he forwarded to me in the recent past,and to everyone's expectatin by now and to my bad, he did not send his blog details in the email. Oh I remember (my memory is alive to some extent), he sent his blog details over the instant messenger which I instantly used to go through his writtings. Now I am sitting here with a 'surprise' look on my face thinking of the reasons to save my a** when my guru asks for an update. Hey my assumptions / efforts to get find the blog did not end there, as my last fall back option I used phone a friend to get to know if this common friend of ours can help me find guru's blog. This was the biggest assumption of all, as this get instinct is lot more carefree than me who gives the blog details of another friend who just started blogging these days....(blogging is something that we all got into these days...hmmm...nice to people expressing themselves)..anyways as expected even the last option (or do i say ASSUMPTION) bombed.
Now I understand "ASSUMPTIONS" don't just work in the project / programming they don't even work in the real life. Man this was the first lessons that was thought to us in this consulting profession that I am: "Don't ASSUME. (ASS + U + ME), because whenever you assume you are making an ASS of yourself (U) and the other person (ME)". As aslways I try to learn lessons the hard way...man I remember some one told me "Experience is the best teacher".
Now this go live hungama, is going to have an impact on our plans for this long weekend. Man we are asked to enjoy our vacations but with to have our dabbas (laptops) and the RFID keys to log into the client site in case of issues. We are expected to enjoy our longweekend in places where Starbucks is close by, so that we can attend to any issues just spring up anytime.
Anyways, though we have some places to visit in our list, haven't yet finalised one. Irrespective of the place we visit, I am going to take some pictures with the new SLR came that I bought for myself. Hope I will put that a better use during this long weekend.
Anyways, as expected the Go Live of my project has been smooth, without any major roadblocks. As it is common in implementation projects, we came across issues though they were not really major. Still as the system has not yet stabilised, people aren't yet celebrating. Specially the management, they expect many more issues in the days to come and are putting the teams on high alert.
Today, i was monitoring one of my programs that went live. I had to spend the night just watching the screen for the status flag to change to the chequered flag from green. Why to stay awake whole night? Just run the job, sleep and wake up in the morning to get the status. Boss, project mein HR module go live ho raha hai, and we are lagging behind schedule. So I had to stay awake as I had to wait for the flag to go chequered and have to tap the other guy waiting for my call to move ahead with the next job. This is all part of the go live hungama. And we can't deny anything at this stage of game in the project, since we are already live.
Why did I speak about staying awake whole night? Was it to express about the go live hungama..definitely not ..hmmm..yes to some extent. While I was awake for most part of the night I kept myslef busy by reading some of the popular blogs on the net. Wow man!, it is amazing to browse through the blogs and the beautiful ways in which people express themselves. Simply awesome! By the way I have to tell, that I have an assignment to read an updated post in my guru's blog (referring to the blog that one of my great friends). I was supposed to complete this assignment couple of days before. And as I always do in my project / personnel life missed the dead line this time though I had a valid reason for missing this, you might expect because of the go live hungama...yeah partially true..but the real reason is I actually forgot my guru's blog.l :( . As my TL always puts it, that I expect things to work, assume things to be executed successfully on the first attempt by being very optimisitic, and when things don't work in reality I look surprised. My actions make me think his feedback is correct.., this time around I assumed that my great friend will have his blog listed on his orkut profile as most people would do. If that was the big assumption, I had a back up plan too. As I rely little on my memory these days not because my memory power has come down, I have grown lazy not trying to remember things but document things, looks like the corporate life style has got to my head...documenting things. Anyways, back to the topic, I hardly tried to remember believing that I would definitely forget, I used the flag option on the blogs window, again ASSUMING that his blog will be added to my favourites list somewhere in my blog, which I never tested and totally relied on it. Now I find that even the second assumption went for a toss and I don't have my friends blog. If this was not enough, I had the third back up planc, again an ASSUMPTION, that i might find it in one of the many forwards that he forwarded to me in the recent past,and to everyone's expectatin by now and to my bad, he did not send his blog details in the email. Oh I remember (my memory is alive to some extent), he sent his blog details over the instant messenger which I instantly used to go through his writtings. Now I am sitting here with a 'surprise' look on my face thinking of the reasons to save my a** when my guru asks for an update. Hey my assumptions / efforts to get find the blog did not end there, as my last fall back option I used phone a friend to get to know if this common friend of ours can help me find guru's blog. This was the biggest assumption of all, as this get instinct is lot more carefree than me who gives the blog details of another friend who just started blogging these days....(blogging is something that we all got into these days...hmmm...nice to people expressing themselves)..anyways as expected even the last option (or do i say ASSUMPTION) bombed.
Now I understand "ASSUMPTIONS" don't just work in the project / programming they don't even work in the real life. Man this was the first lessons that was thought to us in this consulting profession that I am: "Don't ASSUME. (ASS + U + ME), because whenever you assume you are making an ASS of yourself (U) and the other person (ME)". As aslways I try to learn lessons the hard way...man I remember some one told me "Experience is the best teacher".
Now this go live hungama, is going to have an impact on our plans for this long weekend. Man we are asked to enjoy our vacations but with to have our dabbas (laptops) and the RFID keys to log into the client site in case of issues. We are expected to enjoy our longweekend in places where Starbucks is close by, so that we can attend to any issues just spring up anytime.
Anyways, though we have some places to visit in our list, haven't yet finalised one. Irrespective of the place we visit, I am going to take some pictures with the new SLR came that I bought for myself. Hope I will put that a better use during this long weekend.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tomorrow is Go Live!
Tomorrow is the D - day for the project that I have been part of since last April. The project is going live tomorrow...kind of excited about it, but at the same time confident that the go live will be smooth. Anyways, it is a great experience that I am looking forward to.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Make an effort !
Friends, this is an extract from one of my friends "about me" columns in orkut:
"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. And at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
continued.."My days of whining and complaining about others have come to an end. Nothing is easier than fault finding. All it will do is discolor my personality so that none will want to associate with me. That was my old life. No more."
I guess it was worth reading and inspiring.
"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. And at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
continued.."My days of whining and complaining about others have come to an end. Nothing is easier than fault finding. All it will do is discolor my personality so that none will want to associate with me. That was my old life. No more."
I guess it was worth reading and inspiring.
The Last Two Months.
It has been almost two months that I wrote something here. Life in this two months has been crazy, work work work and work, was what I could think of in the last two months. There has been not a single moment I guess, that I had truly enjoyed during this period. I am just surviving is what I could think of. I was very frustrated with life, did not know what I was doing, everything that I took up at work went wrong, sometimes horriblely wrong, but I guess I was able to survive them. Sometimes I had continuously ten - fifteen work days without a break and that made things even more worse. I was trying hard to improve things, then realised that "trying hard" made things go wrong, as I did not have enough break. Then strongly felt that I should take rest and have some break to make things fall back in place. And one day I managed to get out of office around 6:30 PM, man that was the day I could see a beautiful evening after a long gap and I do not even remember when I last did that (may be for months I did not have opportunity to view a beautiful evening). From then on things slowly improved and these days I do not spend late nights at office. But were the last two months fruitful with respect to results, I do not think so. Only that I was working hard, under pressure, under a lot of stress to make manage things rather without any fruitful results. But to think as an optimist, the last two months have reflected the errors that I have been committing through out the project / work. I have a laid back attitude sometimes, which made things worse, I realised how bad the attitude was and now will work on improving things. As I had always realised from my past experiences, when I take up multiple tasks, one of those tasks goes for a toss and this time around it was no different. If I closely observe the last two months, the project demands were high and at the same time took up a task as part of firm initiative that almost back fired. In addition to this, I was in a more or less managerial role for the most part of that period. That made me realise that I need to be lot more proactive, and lot more learning to be a successfull manager. Thinking optimistic, I think I was thrashed into a new role suddenly managing many things at a demanding in the project. The situation was not new to me but the role was. Earlier I was in similar situations where more was expected out of you, but all those times the tasks were just limited to me, but now the expectation was for me to co-ordinate activities with other teams / team members which was like a new thing to me. But it was good in a way, now I know how managers work, it's mostly logical dude no technology required for being a good manager. More than that I realised that you need to be very communicative with the management or with whoever it is, to survive or to make things possible. Taking on responsibility of any task is not always simple, and once you take the responsibility lead it till the end successfully. When I was told that I was given a responsibility, I was just looking at the task in hand, but I never looked at the big picture. I should look at a bigger picture of the task / responsibility in hand and should work to complete the task. One more common feedback that I received multiple times during the past two months is: "I assume things to work successfully on the first go". I guess thatz the problem of being an optimit and at the same time the problem with my laid back attitude. I should and must change that attitude, I should actually not believe that things work untill and unless I look at the results. There could be "n" number of reasons for things not to work as expected, so prepare to face the worse.
Were the past two months really frustrating and stressful? Yes, I would say. But may be as I always think, "what ever happens, happens for good". So those two months were a better learning for me, which will prevent me from committing any non sense in future and will help in having a better carreer.
I cannot write anything better than this from the last two months because, there I was nothing good / great I did expect from work. If any of my friends read this, they might think it is not just the last two months, from the times they know me, they cannot expect me to write anything other than work. :d
Chalo guys, enough of work work work...I will try to post something different if possible. By the way, friends, my project Go Live is round the corner so I do not expect things to be any better for the next two months..think I am ending on a pessimistic note. I would surely update the happenings of next two months in my future posts. Definitely hopeful that things would work properly, and if anything goes wrong, I am there to fix it.
Were the past two months really frustrating and stressful? Yes, I would say. But may be as I always think, "what ever happens, happens for good". So those two months were a better learning for me, which will prevent me from committing any non sense in future and will help in having a better carreer.
I cannot write anything better than this from the last two months because, there I was nothing good / great I did expect from work. If any of my friends read this, they might think it is not just the last two months, from the times they know me, they cannot expect me to write anything other than work. :d
Chalo guys, enough of work work work...I will try to post something different if possible. By the way, friends, my project Go Live is round the corner so I do not expect things to be any better for the next two months..think I am ending on a pessimistic note. I would surely update the happenings of next two months in my future posts. Definitely hopeful that things would work properly, and if anything goes wrong, I am there to fix it.
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