I am from Hyderabad

This is one of the nice articles that I read and I loved it. This article speaks my mind and heart. The article is written by Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy is a civil servant whose family has lived in Hyderabad for over four generations. He is the author of five books, including the bestselling Jeh: A Life of JRD Tata, and Sugar in Milk: Lives of Eminent Parsis. Here is the link of that article.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263401

If not for the article, read these lines that made me fall for it:

“I am from Hyderabad.” That, for me, is the bottom line. Ultimately, it is not important whether Hyderabad goes to Telangana or to Andhra, or becomes a Union Territory or a joint capital. No doubt chauvinism, economics and politics will all play a role when that decision is taken. There are fears that ‘Brand Hyderabad’ will suffer. But let’s not sweat the small stuff. Our concern should be about the disappearance of the inclusive personality that Hyderabad fostered, reveling as it did in its multi-religious and multilingual diversity—a composite character which Nehru not only lauded but also hoped that the rest of India would emulate. To anything which seeks to destroy this syncretism we must say a polite ‘Nakko’, because ‘Hum logaan ko aisich rehna."

Telangana -- United or Divided

Well, honestly I really don't care if Andhra Pradesh is split or is united, that is because all I care is about HYDERABAD. Now, I have to justify my stand....

(a) We should never forget that "Unity is Strength"(Telugulo: "Aikamatyamey Mahabalam".) We can make progress if we are united.But should this progress come at the expense of others?

(b) Now if someone says that language should be the basis of a state, I don't agree. In that case, most of the N.India should be under one state like Bihar, UP, Uttaranchal, Haryana, Delhi, Jharkand, MP. That is not the case right? So I don't see anything wrong in case of having multiple states for the same language.

(c) But first of all, my humble request for all the politicians and people (we) who are debating on this issue of division and unity. One State or Two States is it ok, if one of our fellow citizens is under developed and others developed?

(d) I wonder, the people who are demanding a separate state have any agenda / plan for development. If the separatists had any idea of development. What are they going to do after the state is carved out? If a state or multiple states, at the end of day it should make a difference to the common man, if it doesn't what is the point?

(e) For those who are talking about unity of the state. How many of the leaders speaking of unity are looking for a solution to develop Telangana region, as popularly known why 610 GO is not implemented? Are these people thinking beyond Hyderabad and their investments in HYD? What will be the way forward for those who feel oppressed if we are united?

(f)Now since I am a native of Hyderabad, I really don't care if Hyd is in Telangana / AP / UT. Wonder why can't we have Hyderabad similar to Chandigarh,as capital of two states / three states and as a U.T.

(g) People and leaders, lets not forget we are all INDIANS first. One State / Two States / UT, no one can stop us from living where we are living right now,not even a Thackery or KCR. We are free to live wherever we want in INDIA.

(h)I think the division of states based on language is restricting us to the regional feelings. The regional feeling is taking priority over the feeling of INDIAN NATION. We should all realise, even before we are a Telugu,Tamilian,Kannadiga,Marathi,Andhrite,Mumbaikar or a Hyderabadi, we are ALL INDIANS FIRST.

Unless we develop the feeling of Nationalism above Regionalism, we will be seeing this kind of issues raising often.

Jai Hind.

I hope you dance!!

"I hope you dance! "

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance...
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'...
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin'
Don't let some hellbent heart leave you bitter...
When you come close to selling out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance...
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...
I hope you dance! I really hope you do!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Well, well..don't assume..I haven't turned a poet overnight. As I mentioned in the previous post that I was following Priyanka Chopra on Twitter. She posted the link to one of her articles published in Hindustan Times dated on 10/23/2009. Here is the link of the same.

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleImage.aspx?article=23_10_2009_101_006&mode=1

I am impressed by the article and thought of adding it to my collection. The lyrics above are from the song "I hope you dance" that was mentioned in that article. I hope you folks like it.

Tweet World!

Being a social animal I couldn't resist myself from using all the social networking sites like Hi5,Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Of all these social networking sites I am impressed with twitter because of it's simplicity and the way it has been used these days.

It's amazing to see how Twitter is being used by all the technology, business firms and celebrities. In a way it is bridging the gap between the followed and the followers by reducing the advertising costs. Isn't it like smart way of advertising? You can just follow the people, business, technology, you are interested in and track them from time to time. Thanks to Twitter, though I couldn't make it to SAPTechEd#09, I had the up to date information, discussion and blogs related to the event. I get the latest information on MBA courses, colleges and rankings by following the MBA related links. You can follow the CEO's and the big shots of the successful companies to read their minds and activities, like I follow Zappos CEO ( 'http://twitter.com/zappos' ), this guy has a funny and lucid way of expressing himself. You can build your own tweet world by inviting your friends

The mad world obsessed with celebrity followings has been blessed in a way. The rest of the world is up to date with the activities the celebrities do when they are out of the public life; their friends circle and more importantly their thought process. Celebrities want fame, popularity and fans; want to stay in direct contact with the fans. The madness of the fans sometimes creates a safety concern to them, the arrival of these social networking sites and twitter has made their life simple by keep them in direct contact with their fans with no concern about their safety, no disturbance to public and more importantly from the comforts of their homes. Twitter being an interactive site makes the communication between the followed and the followers look real time.

Hollywood and Bollywood stars are big time into the virtual world, these days. I am not sure if I am 100% correct, Aamir Khan is one of the first folks to start blogging, followed by Big B and others in Bollywood. Blogs are descriptive ways of expressing your thoughts on a particular topic like an essay (just like this), if you need to follow a stars' blog you need to log into their blog and read from time to time. Thats where I believe Twitter makes things simple, you can just start following a celebrity and don't have to remember the names etc, just log into your twitter account and you are presented with the time to time updates.

One such celebrity who is making the most of Twitter in Bolllywood is Priyanka Chopra, the former miss world, one of the top actress in Bollywood. She is very active by updating her status, posting her thoughts, responding to her followers. Have I mentioned the free advertising that she gets by the promotional events, conversation and status messages that she puts up related to her upcoming movies and projects? If you are interested in following her on twitter, peep here 'http://twitter.com/priyankachopra'

I have recently read some columns and came across some discussions on TV about the ill effects and security concerns related to the leakage of the secure / private information into the public life. I would say, technology and science for that matter anything can be used in both constructive and destructive manner. It all depends on the way you make use of it and the user. It requires only a bit of a wise thinking to make the most of the technology in a constructive and mutually beneficial way. Enough of twitter in this post, lets switch to real Twitter ....follow me here...http://twitter.com/

Transforming thoughts into action!

Looks like I am heading towards taking a leap in doing something constructive. The thought that crossed my mind over a birthday wish discussion to one of my close friends RC, had resulted in the process of creating an NGO. I shared the idea with some of great friends like KK and Mr.Cool. Don't know if this is a mere coincidence but KK had the same idea in his mind. So when thoughts match, you have the company of friends, the enthusiasm-energy-and the adrenaline gush to make the most of the moment, what next? The thought transforms into Act that makes the difference. When the intentions are noble and sincere, I believe there will be no stopping!

Finally, I think, I am also making a move from the talkers to shakers. Wish us all a great success in our endeavors and hope we will make a constructive change!

Ok,ok the details of the thought/act will be revealed sooon!

I am very happy and feel energised at the moment, just with the thought that we will be making this leap. Just imagine, when we start the NGO and start working on the same. I cannot wait to experience that feeling!!

iPhone.

Once up on a time, early to mid 90's when I was young say about 9-12 years old, I had this strange problem. I used to cry a lot whenever my parents went out to a market or relatives place. The only reason that I am with my younger siblings alone at home in the absence of my parents used to make me feel scary and make me cry like a kid. I used to wait outside of my house to get a glance of my mom and dad at the end of the street, returning from the market, etc. I had this problem till I got into my teenage, and the problem vanished when I started roaming till late nights, and when it was the turn of my parents to wait for me. He..he.

But why I am blabbering about my childhood problems, when the title of the post is "iPhone" and the pics shown here are of the new device that I bought?

Here goes the answer folks. I used to think, how nice would it be if my mom and dad can carry a device with them where ever they go. So that I can dial in and ask them where they were and by when they will return, I can have an updated information about them, real time info you know. That wish of mine came true first by the mobile technology and thanks to the mobile revolution in India, which made mobile phones accessible and affordable by all the people of the society irrespective of their economic status.

Once out of my kiddo days, when I started returning the problem of staying away from home, I mean college days. We (my friends and me) used to think how great it will be, if we can have that priced mobile phone, a bracelet and a car of our own. Driving the car / bike (in my case car, because I am not a great driver of bikes. I always run into accidents.) talking over the mobile phone man, that would be rocking, isn't it? Now here I am with the latest technology phone and a car that I can change every month. I am living my dream. By now you guys might have figured out the only thing missing in that dream, I will leave that topic for some time later.

Look how fast the technology developed from the days of phone, to mobile phone, to mobile phone with cameras, to an iPhone. Dude, I may be late in posting about this technological developments, but I didn't realize the importance of these devices until I owned them and started using them.

Man, these electronic gadgets bring the whole world to your bedroom. You can do anything and everything possible with just a click on your phone, you don't even need a computer. You browse internet to find the updated cricket score minute by minute irrespective of where you are, you can check the weather in different parts of the world, download and play a video game, you can check multiple email accounts, chat with friends in any part of the world, you can tweet, update status and send scraps on orkut/facebook, check your office email when on road, browse you tube to watch the latest videos on the web sitting at your desk in office,check the stocks and not to mention the GPS advantage. Did I forget anything? Yes, I have not mentioned the iPod, you can store your pictures, videos and play music all the time. Thanks to the software giants like Apple, Microsoft and Google, which have shrunk the whole world in to a palm size device. You guys rock!

I cannot imagine the next big thing in technological world, where this is going and is there a saturation point to it? Do you want to think about it? Who cares? Anyways folks, it's time for me to explore my new device! Stay connected.

9/11 The Day That Changed The World!

"It's Tuesday Morning, September and you will not forget this day.-2001.", this is the phrase that was mentioned in most of the news channels on the day the twin towers were brought down. The attack on the WTC towers, that triggered the war on terrorism by the super power. The events that unfolded completely changed the global political situation. For now, staying away from the situations that triggered, the after effects, who is correct? who is wrong? I would like to think if it is correct to kill people in the name of religion?

God!

Predictions and Responsibility.

09/09/09 09:09:09 amazing isn't it? I liked it and wanted to have something posted here. Having decided to write something, let me think of a topic to put my thoughts. Alright, here I go.

In the previous post, I mentioned that I am a blessed human being to have found some great buddies in my little life I lived. Likewise, in couple of discussions with my buddies in the last one month, I have been commenting that in the next 5 some years there will be some great personalities emerging from this group of friends. The personalities, I mean, those who will be contributing to bring a constructive change in the society, those who will be founding some enterprise to generate employment in the society, those who given an opportunity will contribute there bit to change the political scenario back home, those who will turn out to be well known poets, those who will be social entrepreneurs, those who will take that adventurous path to be the path breakers or trend setters, those who will be getting into the administrative services, all this besides earning the wealth to improve the economy of the state.

I can't mention the names of the personalities for the only reason being all the above people are in the early stages of their endeavors. And just to those who are interested in knowing them, I would suggest, just look around and you will find them. Actually I am blessed in another aspect to, having spent the last three years out of home with different personalities and with friends who are different from each other in the thought process but in the same group. Having different thought process oriented persons in the same group makes a group worthwhile, I hope you agree.

I feel this is a document proof for my thinking and what I have been telling to people around me in the last month. Wish all those individuals success in their endeavors. Amen!

On the same note I would like to mention that, in one of my discussions about the social, economic and political scenarios back home with my Vegas buddy Mr.SY, I argued that because of the jobs we are in currently i.e. the good salaries we are getting which are better than most of the same age group people back home, has given us the luxury of thinking about the society, think about the political situation and economic situation etc. And most of the people back home, are busy thinking about their monthly expenses, the debts they need to pay, are thinking about the rising prices that will impact their planned budget for the month, the health care situation in the family etc, which keeps them busy to think just about their family responsibilities alone, they don't have enough time to think about society etc. That argument of mine was countered by my buddy Mr.SY, who said, "Dude, the fact that others are busy thinking about their daily, monthly situations, makes us responsible and makes it our duty to think about the society. As you have said it isn't that luxury of time that makes you think, it is your Responsibility to think and consider it to be your Duty."

Think people! And don't stop just by thinking. Act!!

Friends at office and Gyaan!

Back to work in the new project, after the holiday I had in Vegas for two months, it's no more party time at work. It is a complete different work environment in this project, I was under the impression that usually state projects are cool, but this project proves me wrong.However, if you have friends around you and when you have messengers available to talk to friends in different parts of the world, work seems to be made easy, isn't it? And when you have old pals in the company your journey isn't less eventful.

I always consider myself very lucky in having some great buddies and thank God for giving me such a great group of friends. At my work, I have friends who are my bench mates in the high school with whom I shared my first little secrets; I have friends from my junior college, the guys with whom shared the feeling of being the free birds out of school; i have friends from my engineering class, the people with whom I graduated; and the friends with whom I made it to this level, starting from my 7th standard. Isn't your work place a great place to be, when you have friends from all walks of your life?

KK happens to be one from the above group of friends,this dude is my junior college buddy. This guy is a specialist in maintaining a great network of friends. If you want to get any news information about any damn person your network KK is the guy you should be looking to. I am lucky to be in his good books. This chap had put a majestic untiring effort to get into this work place. I heard stories about Gazini, the perisan ruler who invaded ancient India 16 times and lost, to taste success on his 17th attempt. But I had seen that similar kind of effort from my buddy KK. This guy appeared for interviews at this current work place for "X" number of times and had to misout due to some unspecified reasons but never gave up. And finally tasted success to be at the place where the best choose to be. I personally feel he deserves to be there.

KK happens to be in my office messenger list, and I ping him very often; I sometimes annoy him, but thatz what friends are there for. KK is recently appearing for GMAT, this is one ambitious guy who is never resting and wants to keep climbing all the while. This guy recently came to know about my blog, and had imparted some gyan to me. This guy has made me realize the weight-age of this extra curricular activities in making it to MBA. This dude wants me to write something about social, economic, current affairs, industry specific etc. which people will be interested in reading. My view is that totally depends on the intention with which we write the blog, to some extent this chap had convinced me to start a new blog with my knowledge in the packages that I have been working since the last 5 years. Knowingly or unknowingly he made me realize the truth that I have gained an experience of 5 years in industry.

Now to fight back, I asked him to start one on his own with such topic, he reverted back by saying he has to start the journey from zero, and as I have already started my journey it will be easier for me to keep writing in different topics. Yeah dude, I understand there is a little friction in the beginning, that you will get through it once you keep it going. Anyways, thanks buddy, I will seriously consider it. As KK had put it, though I am not a celebrity to keep writing about my daily routine in the blog and expect people to read, I say, I am not writing for people to read buddy, this is just a medium to express my feelings with the day to day happenings in life. But thanks for the gyan dost! I might start a new blog on your direction, who knows?

Las Vegas to Lansing.

Ambiguity is the word that perfect describes the life of a consultant. Though there are scheduled durations to a project, but never are they stable. The duration of the project keeps changing, like the recently concluded project which was scheduled to go till the next year got scrapped in two months time. As I mentioned in the previous post, I considered my project in Vegas as a paid holiday. I wish I stayed there a little longer.

Along with this ambiguity there comes a positive side, you are on the move all the time. Having kicked out of Vegas with a little notice, I was lucky enough to find another project in Lansing, the capital city of Michigan state (i.e. the great lakes state). Michigan is one of the northern states in US that is bordering Canada. There is a road here in the city of Detroit, which goes to Canada. Out of the four states that I have been, Michigan seems to be the one with less development. Though the state is home to some of the major car manufacturing companies the roads here not as great as they are in California or Colorado. Looks like the recent economic downturn has effected the state very badly. But the positive side effect is the state is re-building the roads here out of the funding they have from the sanctioned bail out package.

Don't know for some reason I liked taking the long route via LA, may be the thought of being in LA for a stopover fancied me. I have been in LAX airport several times, but never in the domestic airport. Traveling to Lansing from Las Vegas via Los Angeles is not a wise decision, but this meant that I had to take a red eye flight from LA to Lansing. The experience of taking a red eye flight is horrible, you are traveling the whole night, without any proper sleep. I wouldn't appreciate this experience, but really have got loads of appreciation to those consultants who travel coast to coast in the red eye flights. Anyways, my red eye experience was bad, I was not asleep for more than an hour in that four hour flight. Adding insult to injury was I spilled a glass of ice cold water on my pants and seat with about 30 mins into the journey and had to deal with it for the rest of the journey ;-(.

I landed at Detroit airport early in the morning with half asleep and rented a Subaru, a mini SUV, I wanted to drive this car for a long time and the lady in the rental location was generous to rent this car at an affordable rate. I had to drive from Detroit to Lansing, i.e about 90 miles (around 1hr 30 mins) in a chilly weather and without proper sleep. This was my first long drive alone, though I was on road trips many a time, but never was alone. So took up to driving, it was a totally different transition from one extreme of the world to another extreme. It was like, I was thrown into some remote part of America. Dude, the roads are small, it's woods all the way on either sides of the road, sometimes you can even find Deers on the road.

After driving for 90 minutes I was at the hotel, and wasn't surprised to see the Indian contingent at the hotel. Now I got used to finding Indians in any part of the world, the first time I was coming to US, I felt it will be hard to find Indians. Right now, I feel, it is hard to find any place without Indians. Mind you I am not being sarcastic in the above sentence, but being proud that we Indians are ruling the world ;-). The moment I was waiting for in the last 90 mins to hit the bed once I am at hotel had to be delayed for another 90 mins as I was very early to the hotel from my prescribed check in time. With the only option of going to my friend Mr.S's place, went to his place and crashed for a nap.

On getting a message that my room was ready for occupation, returned back to hotel, freshened up and hit the road again. This time to meet my buddies at Jackson, my consulting firm is doing another project here which is just 30 miles from here. My buddy Mr.Cool dude, has moved to this project about 7 months back after he returned from London. I met him after a gap of one year, the last time we saw each other was when this dude left LA for London. It's always a great pleasure to meet your friends and especially the one's who are really close to you in thinking..etc.
I am impressed by this guy. Anyways, I was in Jackson by 2.30 PM and among friends on the first day.

We went on a small long ride to a near by lake, btw Michigan is known for its lakes and it really should be for the number of lakes that are here. Had a classy time sipping Starbucks coffee at the shores of a lake. I always imagined of Jackson as a big city similar to LA by the descriptions given by another friend Mr.Sk, the fitness freak, but in reality it is totally opposite of what I imagined, but it is cool. Couple of weeks back I was thinking I never lived in a village, now here I got my wish is fulfilled by being in these towns of Lansing and Michigan. Sk is a fitness freak and is athletic too. He asked to jump over a small fencing, I under estimated the fencing height and went for a jump which resulted in me crashing on the stones with free fall. There I go nearly missing a fracture on the first day of my stay in Michigan. However, later the day was made more memorable by playing cricket. Though we lost both the games we played, it was a little different experience from playing tennis. Thus after the dinner with my buddies at Outback, returned home and crashed in the bed after an eventful day.

Leaving Las Vegas!

I knew at some point in time I will have this post on my blog, but never wanted it to be this early. Unfortunately things aren't in our control; the other day we were planning to stay in Sin City for about an year, now we are packing our bags to leave the city. In 'Bhagwad Geetha' Lord Krishna had said, "Parivartan hee sansar ka neeyam hai"; english transation-- change is the way of life, i.e. change is the only thing constant in life. We personally don't realise that reality until we get the experience of it. Consulting is one such profession which keeps changing, keeps you on the move all the time and prooves the above statement is true.

Life comes at you very hard. Couple of months back, I was trying hard to get to the entertainment capital of the world and my prayers were anwered and I came to Sin City on a project. Now I am helpless on knowing that I will be leaving the place in couple of weeks. That is the way of life. I personally believe these things make people strong. Though we knew this is coming at us, we weren't sure of the time. Now that finally, it has come out, we (the consultants) are back on beach (in consulting terminology).

I would like to be positive and treat the last two months as one of the best two months to happen for me. I have never been on a project like this any time, and don't know if I will work for a company that is rated one among the 100 best companies to work for by Fortune magazine. The work environment here is ultra cool, no dress code, beautiful people around and well decorated office with the fashion designs/posters. Well the first impression of the office for me was -- it was more of a college rather than an office. The one thing that I am surely going to miss from the project is the no dress code policy. Man, its cool to be working at office in your shorts, T-shirts, sandals and to have beautiful female colleagues in their gorgeous fashion outfits.

Good things in life come in small packaages. All good things in life come to an end, at the same time all good things will start again. I have decided to hope for the best and keep enjoying the journey, more importantly make complete use of stay in Sin City. Isn't this like a paid holiday, well I would treat it that way.

Know..Know..Not No...Know..Know!

I know the title of the post is funny, felt that this is apt for the content that is posted. This post is about a poem that I got to learn from our English lecturer in junior college. Here goes the poem as I remember,

Know!

He who knows not, knows not that he knows not,

He is a fool, shun him.

He who knows not, knows that he knows not,

He is ignorant, teach him.

He who knows, knows not that he knows,

He is asleep, wake him.

He who knows, knows that he knows,

He is a leader, follow him.

Meeting Mr.S.

Believe it or not, I have decided to visit the Hindu Temple of LV every weekend on Saturday or at least once a week and this is my third successive week here. To make things a little complex, I have been a practising vegetarian since last one month and going to be like that for next one month. This one month, I have lived the life of a pure vegetarian didn't even taste omelet. I am really finding it difficult to be a vegetarian, can't imagine how the pure vegetarians live their whole life without eating non-veg. Terrible man! Anyways, being optimistic I think that its going to be only a month, so my countdown has started its 28 more days before I start eating non-veg.

This Saturday, after getting out of the party mood that we carried from Thursday night party and the after effects of the party, made my way to temple. Doctor S wanted to come to temple and my friend SY also wanted to join us, but his after effects of the party did not allow him to do so. In his best interest we suggested him to take rest for one more day. Dr.S and me left to temple which is roughly 20 miles from our place of residence. We live on the SE of 215 and the temple is diagonally opposite towards NW of 215. Anyways, traffic is not at all a problem, as the city goes to sleep after sunrise. A drive of about 30 mins left us at the temple.

On my last 3 or 4 visits to the temple this is the first time that I saw a crowd of approximately 50 people at the temple. First tried to recollect if there is anything special, but Dr.S informs me that on every first Saturday of the month, the Abhishekam Pooja of Lord Venkateshwara is performed. Owing to our good luck, we just landed in the temple at the beginning of the Abhishekam Pooja. This is the first time, that I witnessed the Abhishekam of Lord Venkateshwara, and am really happy about it. The pooja took about 1.30 Hours and unlike the temples in India, the good thing that I like about the temples in US is, the devotees get a chance to offer harathi to Bhagvan. This is the second temple where I got to do so, the former being the Hindu temple of Denver which I used to visit every Thursday on my second visit. At the time of Harathi today the temple bell was rung by an elderly person. Realising that it was tiring for him, Dr.S offered support to him by ringing the bell for sometime. We all completed the harathi and took the prasadam.

When I thought it was time to get back home as it was already 1.30 Hrs in the temple, then the same elderly person who rang the bell walks up to us and introduces himself as Mr.S, who is a regular visitor to the temple and is also one of the members of the temple committee. Here comes the advantage of being in the company of Doctors. When Dr.S introduced himself as a doctor who is a practising Orthopeditian in India and is on a research program here, Mr.S was impressed and started talking about his son who is also pursuing his medicine in US. His daughter is pursuing her under graduation in Entrepreneurship at some institute in Boston. I got to introduce myself as an IT Consultant currently on the project for one of the popular shoe stores online which recently got sold to the largest online store for books etc. Mr.S immediately identified the company because of the recent developments of the company and tried to identify some official of HR at my current client location. I politely answered that I was new to the client and don't know the HR official.

Mr.S then took us to the prasadam (this time mid day lunch), he decided to have lunch with us. In the process I was personally happy to have a proper Indian lunch with puri and sambar in addition to other Indian delicacies. Mr.S joined us at the lunch table and introduced us to another Doctor who happens to be a regular visitor to the temple. Then we started discussing all the things about how lucky we were to be here in America compared to the many who are willing to be in this nation. As we were all God fearing gentleman in the temple, we all attributed our journeys to the blessings of 'The Lord'.

As most elderly start telling about themselves and the path they travelled, Mr.S was no exception. Mr.S who is originally from Mangalore in Karnataka, told us that he first got the exposure of America by watching the picture of Sunrise in the state of Arizona on one of the magazines of his day back in the 60's called "The Span" (I don't know if I correctly remember the name). It seems his uncle used to get that English magazine in 60's and he was impressed by the picture of the sunrise in the magazine and he remembered the name of the state as "Horizon" instead of "Arizona". He then decided to visit America. It seems he started asking everyone about the ways of getting to America but everyone who visited US used to give him lectures about why he wanted to be there etc..(as it is common in our society). But he was determined to be in the States.

He told that he was not great at his academics, and could not clear his SSLC ( current day SSC, i.e. 10th board exams in India). He moved to Bombay (current day Mumbai) in search of job, he got some job worked for sometime in a company based in US. Then he moved to Saudi Arabia for the same company and worked for a good number of years. Once when he was working in Saudi Arabia, his company offered him a training in the states, which gave him the opportunity to visit US for the first time. Seems after his training program of 15 days, he was given the option to travel around US for a month. On this travel he visited Disney Land in LA and was very impressed by the country and its achievements. The his desire to move to US has increased.

Until his children were of the age to start going to school, he was in Saudi Arabia. After that the company that he was working for offered him the opportunity to move to US which he accepted. As you know that the work i.e. jobs in US are volatile (i.e. you can be hired and fired anytime), he lost his job within 3 months of his arrival here. He found another job and for a period of 3 years it seems he never had a permanent job. He mentioned that the economic crisis in late 80's was far more worse than the economic crisis we are facing today. Landing in different jobs he finally, ended up in Las Vegas, the Sin City. It seems till date he has worked on 27 different jobs, and all different. I just thought I am not even 27 as of today..,hmm.

In LV, he was working in one of the departments in the volcanic casino and his boss moved to another rich casino. X and Y happen to be one of the rich casinos in LV. The party that we had on Thursday night was in Encore under the same management of X. Coming back to the topic, his boss who was a lady called up Mr.Sand asked him if he would work for her in X. His answer was and I quote "For a proper price, I will work for anyone". She offered him a 30% hike and he moved to X. When he was working at X, she asked him to attend a conference on IT developments and implementation at X, which she wasn't much interested. Mr.S attended the conference and there he met some senior officer at X. The Senior Officer offered him another position and his answer was the same "For a proper price, I will work for anyone". This senior officer talks to the lady who brought him to X and gets him to a new position with another 30% hike. When at work one day, in the corridor he met with one of the senior most officers at the X and wishes him. On seeing him and knowing his background this senior officer offers him the position of the senior official (something like that) and as you know by now, "For a proper price..". Thus Mr.S landed up being the senior officer of one of the departments at X. Mr.S attributed everything he has and his development to the blessings he has from "The Lord Venkateshwara", as all these chain of events started after his visit to the Lord of Seven Hills at Tirumala, Tirupathi. Interestingly enough, he is the third person I got to know of this situation, the second person being Mr.RS (the tamilian who is a Canadian citizen) currently working at my previous client the cheese producers. Do you want to know who the first is? Take a guess.

As part of the discussion Mr.S told that qualifications was little to do with whatever you want to be. As I want to discuss and don't like accepting as it is (other than subject matters), I questioned him saying, back in those days there was no competition and no qualified people. Hence he could make it. His answer or rather the statistic was interesting, it seems the sociologists say that out of the 22 years of formal education that we receive it is only 7% of that education that we put to use in our daily life. Out of that 7%, 93% of what we use the education that we have received in our primary or lower school. The rest of the 15 years of education that we receive attributes to only 7%. Then he counter questioned me by asking "How much of the education that you received in your under graduate course are you using in the current job?". Obviously I was stumped, I did my engineering in Electronics and Communications but I am working on SAP Consulting which has got nothing to do with what I studied. Even in my interview I was asked the question of the difference between series and parallel connections, which even a 6Th grade student can answer. His statistic made sense. I hope most of you (us) would agree with his statistic.

But how much of luck can take you to where he is today? Then as part of further argument he agreed that he had worked harder to be successful in his different jobs. As all the jobs that he did were different, he didn't even had the advantage of claiming the experience. He said he had to work extra hard to learn and perform, unlike his colleagues or team members who were more qualified or trained or experienced. There were days which he didn't even go home because of our work. There lies the answer. I believe and read the quote many places by many personalities that "There is no substitute to hard work and dedication." Fortune favours the brave!

Once we were done with our lunch and discussions, we were invited to Mr.S's place for a proper Udupi style breakfast on some weekend. He was actually, interested in taking us to his place this afternoon, but we had to go home to know the status of our friend SY. We thanked him for the invitation and came home with the blessings of The Lord, prasdam for my friend and the experience of meeting an interesting personality.

My Dad, always tells me to visit temples and mingle with the Indian community here. I am sure, he will be very happy to know this experience. But you know the type of communication that I have with my father, I don't know if I would be able to express everything to him. At least I am happy that I did something, he wants me to do.

Hottest Party in Vegas!

My last few weekends in Sin City have been limited to gambling and tennis. This weekend we made the most of it by attending one of the hottest parties in Vegas. The event was the 10th anniversary of the client, the party was at "Encore" casino "XS Nightclub" and my consulting company were the sponsors.

I was up for the party right from the day it was announced couple of weeks back. My friend SY, was little skeptical about attending the party as there were only drinks, no food. He even suggested that the party was no use for me as I don't even drink alcohol. But I was least bothered and was determined to be there. I compelled him to accept the invitation for the party. However even till Thursday evening he was not willing to attend. I however, got the company of Ar an independent consultant, my counterpart working in the same team. SY tried to put a condition to me for his attendance, this week we rented a Chrysler Sebring Convertible Coupe. We were not able to take off the roof of the car, we just didn't pay enough attention during the week. SY told me that he would attend the party if I could get the roof off. I tried all the tricks and called the Avis help desk who in turn directed us to the rental location. We tried calling the guy and tried to fix it with the help of instructions we received from the guy on the other end of the call. When we started to take it to the rental location, we figured it out accidentally. Now SY tried to play some tricks to avoid himself from coming to the party, but I forced him into it.

As there was no food at the party, we decided to have our dinner and leave for the party as per Indian Punctuality at 10.00 PM (party starts at 9.00 PM). We drove in our topless Chrysler two door car, along with Ar. The experience was awesome and adding to that was the speed with which SY drove the car made it more fun. As we entered the strip with convertible car and Telugu songs playing.."Bangaru Kodipetta" from the recent movie "Magadheera" in full volume was an awesome experience. Just as we entered the strip, one of the girls from the adjacent Hummer Limousine waved at me, I was a little confused but realised and waved her in return. It was really a funny experience.

We made it to the XS night club just when the party was heating up. The first person we met was our PM, PS at the bar. PS offered us the tequila shots which SY and AR obliged. PS was little disappointed at me on not drinking, thatz ok. I tried Red Bull, for the first time at the party. Usually Red Bull is energy drink that energies you, but I felt a little sleepy. Anyways, the party was heating up and all the people were in great party mood. I couldn't find anyone without a drink. People were inside the air balloon and walking on the water in the swimming pool, with some beautiful young girls assisting them. There was some energy meter which people were trying to test their energy levels. Some 3 or 4 bars all around the place and the private cabins and public beds on either sides of the swimming pool. It was a real party atmosphere. Important point to note, SY didn't carry his mobile that day, which added to our troubles that evening that would last for next two days, however no mention here..hmm..'Whatever happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas'.

We walked around the place then as it happens, SY spent more time at different bars in the club. I spent time on the dance floor and AR was walking around with a drink in his hand. As time passed by the dance floor heated up and could see people dancing wild. I love dancing in the nightclubs and that's the only thing worthwhile for me to do in such a party. I was a little hesitant in the club in the beginning but once I started dancing got the company of a girl who was drunk and was little tall. Danced with her for sometime, she showed me some steps and we danced for few minutes. The vidoe link posted at the end of the post has this girl (Try to take a guess!).Then there was no stopping for me. I earlier thought we need to have a partner to dance, but then I realised everyone was single and could find a partner on the dance floor itself. Moreover I was not concerned about others anymore and was dancing my heart out. One of my friends told or may be I read it some where "One should dance as if no one is watching you". That's the same principle I applied and was completely immersed in dancing.

As I was dancing on the floor, for sometime I had the company of AR. Later he was busy with drinks. I did not bother about SY, as I thought I could find him after the party on the dance floor or in the night club after the party. It was really fun and a great experience on the dance floor, the girls were really hot and beautiful. There was one girl who I thought was the most beautiful in the party that night was dancing next to me. I tried to approach her but as you know our inhibitions.I was thinking twice and by the time I could realise, she was in the arms of the other guy. God man, I just lost the opportunity to dance with the girl I liked that night. Later on further analysis; my friend SY suggested that if I atleast had a beer or two that night, I wouldn't have had such inhibitions. Alas I don't drink! Anyways, I was content that I got to dance with the other girl. I better refrain from mentioning the wild things that happened at the party. Wow, for sometime I thought the party would go on till the next morning, I actually wanted it to be like that. But the party got over just after midnight.

After the party I at least tried to find and compliment the girl I liked, but it was not to be the case. She just got disappeared and I got busy searching my friend SY, whom I lost earlier in the party. The Indian Mafia, i.e. ( me, AR and SY) as we are called by the client side PM, JNY, met and came back home later that night. This party really deserves to be "The Hottest Party" that I ever attended and that being my first night club experience in Sin City makes it really special. Here goes the link for the video posted by Zappos CEO on his twitter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfeZgT26e4U

Signature!!

Hey all, long time no see. This one is going to be really short. I have moved from the mile high city to Sin city on a new project. I have been busy these days with a fixed routine, on weekends spend the whole night at some casino. On weekdays work at office and play tennis with my roomies Dr.S and SY.

Unlinke the previous year July 4th long weekend when I went on Pacific Coast Hwy Drive with my friend Mr.Cool, this time I opted to stay in Sin City doing nothing ;-). My roomies took the option of going to SFO from Sin City via LA by the way of Pacific Coast. Since I am a veteran of Pacific Coast this time around, I was content providing the directions and good beaches on Pacific Coast to them.

This long weekend I stayed in Sin City and did nothing on first day literally stayed at home all day watched the non stop comedy on television. Second day just went on a stroll on LV Blvd famously known as The Strip. Man, I like the strip more when it is crowded. It took me two hours to drive from one end of the strip to the other and come back. Fed up with the heavy traffice, preferred to walk by parking my car in one of the parking lots of a casino. Went to some of the famous casino's like The Wynn and The Encore. These are really awesome casinos with rich crowds and some fancy red coloured decorations. By the time I returned from the stroll it was 2.30 AM in the morning and couldn't do much but sleep. Earlier that night watched some fireworks around the city, this is mostly on outskirts. Since I am on the tenth floor of the residence Inn, it gave me the luxury of watching the fire works around 1/2 of the cities outskirts.

On the last day of the weekend went on a shopping spree to the LV Outlet center and was happy to find the prices on the occassion of July 4th weekend. Bought some good number of clothes and while shopping when I signed on the bill receipts I received compliments for my signature from two different store keepers. One of them said my signature was very fancy and the other lady told that it was more like the signature of an hollywood actor or a Doctor. I wish I was atleast one of those. he..he. As you all know, we should keep dreaming Big, who knows one day.!!???

Indians Living Lives to The Fullest!!

Here are some of the Indians who are living there lives to the fullest with no age barriers. It has come as a sweet surprise and inspiration to me that people of my country are defying the social boundaries and enjoying the life in their own way. This extract is from Outlookindia.com:

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?260052

Like the 87 year old Navjiva Khosla and the 27 year old Anthony Thottungal, I have the desire to travel along the length and breadth of my diverse country and capture it's enriching experience. I wish even I would be able to take up a journey like them. Amen!

Realizations of a successful entrepreneur

This is an extract from the interview of mCheck CEO Sanjay Swamy on www.sramanamitra.com..and the text here is one of the answers:

Anything that you think is done is not yet done. Whatever estimate you have as to how much money it will take, multiply it by three because everything takes three times longer. Then multiply it by two because by the time you get it done, everything has doubled in cost. We always try to be capital efficient, and we should be, but in an industry like ours where there are multiple players, the timelines never work out like they should.

As an entrepreneur, you are lucky if you get five days of glory in a year. Those five days are what is worth waiting for. You have to just keep plugging away regardless of what people believe. Never be discouraged and never give up. Some people will doubt you until the end of the world. However, if people are giving you constructive criticism, those are people you need to keep close to you.

Also, it is trying. It will take its toll on your family, friends, and health. There are a lot of strains you are going to go through, there is no avoiding it. You can never show that to the team. You have to motivate them at all times. You can’t worry about what you are going through. It always helps to have a good sense of humor and laugh things off. From time to time it is important to look back and see what good things have happened.

This extract is from the interview of Harish Hande - Social Entrepreneur, founder Selco.

Think long term, and have patience. There is no short cut to creating good processes. A lot of people try to solve it quick, and that can’t happen. Some people do it by numbers – reach 5 million in 3 years, and I will give you money. I would never do that. Concentrate more on the processes, and the numbers will come.

Memorial Weekend

Memorial day weekend, so a long weekend. Got a chance to stay at home continuously for three days. The long weekend is usually the time to take up long trips in US. This time I had no companion and adding to that the ambiguity of a consultants life, I had to stay back at home. However I made the most of the weekend by playing tennis on two days some kind of a fitness regime and apart from that nothing w.r.t physically activity. 

To make this lazy long weekend a beautiful one I am blessed with the beauty of the Rockies from the comforts of my hotel room. There is a strange coincidence that I have with this hotel and Denver weather. Ninety percentage of the weekends that I stay in this particular hotel, it rains. This long weekend was no exception. It rained and I got the beautiful green weather, the clouds and the Rockies to make it a picture perfect weekend.

The picture perfect lazy weekend, has been made memorable by watching two movies continuously in the near by AMC movie theaters. My idea of a movies is to go watch the movie that starts around 6.30 PM or 7.00 PM and by the time the movie ends it will be a perfect dinner time. Go out to a good restaurant to have a big fat spicy Indian food. Of course things are not always perfect when in a group and you have to give in to the opinions of your friends. Moreover I was the one responsible for getting the movie plan postponed by a day, so I was left with zero excuses and had to accept for a movie at 3.00 PM. 

We watched the science fiction movie "The Terminators Salvation" a purely action flick. This movie was much better than the last encounter that we had with "Watchmen". The other folks one my long time friend and room mate in this project, Mr.MV is a Gujurati and the other one is Mr.KS a Sri Lankan Tamil. KS is a cool dude and is fun to hang around. These two folks are mainly into action movies, though I am not a movie buff and no preferences in particular, I watch any movie. 

By the time we were done with Humans destroying SkyNet headquarters based in Northern California and John Connor, who lead the human resistance, had a success full heart transplant from the infiltrate Marcos Wright the machine with human heart it was 5.oo PM.  My friends were done with the action flick they have been longing to watch and headed back to their place of action, work place. I don't understand how these people can go back to work after a movie, that's beyond my understanding and I did not want to disturb their plans and let them make a movie.

Once out of the movie, I was greeted with a beautiful Westminster soaked in the rain, as mentioned earlier the greenery, the cloudy evening, the cleanly washed freeways, the cars and the Westin made it a pleasant evening. I must admit my love for rain and the pleasant cloudy weather making me think about the beautiful things in life. I had the wish of taking a long walk but there was that perfect companion missing to complete this perfect weekend. I wished if I had the perfect someone to talk the perfect sweet nothings to complete the beautiful weekends. Anyways, bro time and tide wait for none. Similarly as my friend, philosopher and guide, hmm..Mr.Guruji has once said in his own words "Kismat Se Zyada and Waqt Se Pehley Kabhee Kisiko Kuch Nahi Milta" (translation: No one in this world has ever got anything more than what he is destined to get and never before the time he is supposed to get),that means I have to wait for my time and kismat to find that perfect person to complete my perfect evening.

I was in no mood to go back home and watch TV or work. Moreover, I had another movie that was lined up in my queue and thought that the best way to getaway with my loneliness was to watch another movie. Wasting no time and without any second thoughts, I was back at the tickets counter and luckily the movie that I had planned was about to start.

Just to get to know what time it was, I had to switch on my phone and to my hard luck I find a voice message from my TL asking to attend a priority issues. That is the ambiguity of a consultants life you never know when you have to work and attend to issues. I heard the voice message after taking the tickets for the show. My TL had asked me to return the call whenever I get to the message and there I was inside the theater for the second successive movie. I first thought anyways, I am inside the theater and will return the call once done with the movie. The movie started and my mind was constantly thinking about the phone call. I could not concentrate on the movie and said to myself that I have to return the call, as I believe in doing one thing at a time and with peace of mind. Came out of the hall and returned the call to my boss. He explained about one of the critical situations and we discussed and depending on the urgency I thought I could finish the job by next morning when the actually required the program. Once I was done with the call, I was lot relaxed and had peace of mind, went back to complete the movie.

The movie "The Angels and Demons", was a drama acted by Tom Hanks as the professor who cracks the mystery of the villain trying to prevent the progress of science fearing the importance of the Church and the God will be diminished. From times unknown the religion and science have been at war. The Church or for that matter any religion tries to address everything from the point of Super natural force with no questions asked and no reasons. Science on the other hand always demystifies every thing, questions and finds reasons. Its a War that has been from the beginning of time and will continue but Humans have made hell of a progress without losing faith in God. That's remarkable and kudos to the Human race.

Once done with two consecutive movies of completely different stories was time for me to head back to my place. With the break that I had, for the first time in a month I cooked rice as my dinner.  And got back to work and my day came to an end sometime late in the night after sending an email related to the critical issue that needs to be resolved by next morning.

Breaking News

These days news channels appear to be better source of entertainment than the regular channels. As everything and anything makes there way in to news. And not to mention the epidemic of breaking news. My little brain had the understanding of this word "Breaking News" as something which has real big influence on the society like the election results, the tragedy of 9/11, uncle Sam attacking some middle eastern country and some thing like a major terror activity and some major upset / result in a sports event. 

But I am proved an illiterate by these news channels on my understanding of "Breaking News". If an X team wins a match over Y team, its a breaking news. If Big Sister acquires a team, it is a breaking news. If SRK returns from SA with utter disappointment over his teams performance, it is a breaking news. If a terrorist organisation in my neighbouring country changes the name, which they usually do twelve times in a year, still qualifies to be a breaking news. If a bomb blasts in my neighbouring country which usually happens every other day, is a breaking news. If a bollywood heroine changes her boyfriend, which she usually does, qualifies to be a breaking news. If the mother of a young political leader visits him in jail its a breaking news. If an item girl lodges a complaint against her boy friend for allegedly kissing her in a party, is  a breaking news.  

I do not understand why the hell all the above qualify to be breaking news they are just any other news item. The day is not far when there will be a break news.."the dog barks in the backyard!!".

Educational Institutes -- Where are we heading?

In the recent past I have watched the news related to our educational institutes. The educational institutes are supposed to be the temples of learning. In my country we even treat our teachers as equivalents of God. The teachers are given the position next only to the parents. Such is the respect given to teachers. However, in the recent developments the teachers are performing such acts that they are loosing respect of the students; and at the same time the students are not giving the due respect to their teachers.

It is not uncommon in India to punish the students at school, the punishments are sometimes severe. In one of the recent incidents a school teacher had made the child to stand in the hot sun for not completing the homework assigned to her. The poor kid could not withstand the high temperatures and she fell ill. She later went into coma and died. The kid's only mistake was not to complete her assignment and she had to face death. Does she deserve a death punishment for not completing her homework?

The other news that I got to watch on the idiot box was related to a university staff who got humiliated by the students for misbehaving with the female students in the campus. The person in discussion, had misbehaved towards the female students in the campus. The complaint was lodged against him and the university was taking legal action against him. But still the students thought it was their responsibility to teach a lesson to this guy and they started pouring ink over his face and beating him in public. Now if everyone feels so responsible and takes their own actions of justice, then why do we have judiciary?

In one other incident, one of the student who was an asthma patient did not receive immediate attention and by the time the student is taken to hospital for the required assistance, she succumbs to death. This is not in any government operated schools, but in a highly regarded private educational institutes.

This time the private university which was just registered collects high fee from its students provides them with nominal facilities. After two years the college management informs them that they are not a recognised institute and are just registered, hence cannot provide graduation degrees to the folks. Having lost their invaluable two years of education, the students return to violence by beating the administrative staff in the college and damaging the college property. As in all the bollywood movies, the cops arrive in the end and take the management into custody.

In another inhuman and barbaric act, in one of the schools for deaf and dumb the female students are subjected to sexual harassment's. And the culprits are none other than the staff and management of the institute. When the teachers and the staff who are supposed to help the students turning into self-confident citizens of the country turn into villains, what education will they get? Where will they go to learn the ways to lead their life in the so-called civilized world?

If the educational insititutes and the teachers don't realise their responsibilities and the importance of the lives of the students who blindly believe them to transform them into knowledgeble and responsible citizes of the nation, it is hard to imagine the state of the nation.

Land of Billion People

This is an incident that occurred in my project, yep the same one LFP about which I described in my previous post. As mentioned earlier the technology team works from the small corner in the garden floor of the corporate office. All the functional teams / PMO etc., are stationed on the second floor. The corner where we sit is really a small place and had two noisey printers as our companions. In that place three people can work sitting adjacent to each other with little comfort.

In the functional team, there are a couple of client people who are from the same land as me. Among them there is a guy called RS who is from my country, who had left the country long back. He moved from one country to another and ended up as a Canadian citizen currently working in United States as my client.  RS is a very funny person, he often surprises with his witty answers. He is a good natured person and has high regards for his home land or rather the land of his origin. 

One of the consultants working here is from my company lets call him JW, a Texan. This guy is a cool dude who is funny at times. 

Usually to do the testing, the functional folks come downstairs to work with us.  One day there were only two of us, this guy JW comes to work with my other team mate. When they were testing some object, RS joins. He had some object scheduled for testing and he was supposed to work with me. In that conjusted location, RS brought a chair from the neighbouring meeting room and was a little confused in arranging it there. Then JW comes up with this phrase and I quote, "Come on man, squeeze in. You come from a Land of Billion People".

Testing in QA!

This is a real incident form my second on site assignment, lets call it LFP. We were in the integration test cycle 3 phase of our project and just one month away from go-live. Unlike my first on site assignment where I was just part of the interfaces PI team, here I was working as both an ABAP and PI resource. I need to be honest here, my colleagues in this project are experienced ABAPers who have been on multiple on site assignments.

As you can imagine, being a month away from the project go-live, everyone was working hard to get the objects tested in the quality boxes, fixing the issues and testing to make sure everything looked perfect.  We had some smartforms i.e. in non-technology term it is just any other form which is like an order quotation, invoice etc that can be printed from the transactions in SAP and can even be sent electronically via emails / faxes. One of my colleagues here was responsible in developing this object in the project and was the single point of contact for all the issues related to smartforms and there sending mechanism. I have to admit he did a splendid job of getting this functionality achieved. 

When one of the forms was tested in the QA box the heading column in the form was blacked out and the rest of the form was getting printed with expected values. Now that was our top priority to quickly check why we were having the issue. We thought lets take a print and validate for other type of form. We did that and found the document had the same issue as the previous one. Then we thought, ok lets send it electronically to once of our email accounts and check if the document appears with the heading column in black. We triggered the same transactions in our QA box this time by selecting the email options. Better idea isn't it?  Before the emails are finally sent out from the system these get stacked up in the buffer and a separate transaction needs to be executed to release the buffer. Since we were in testing; the technology folks (we) had the access to release the buffer in the QA box. I logged into the transaction on my friends request and found that there were about 23 other emails/faxes queued up in the buffer.Without any hesitation, we executed the transaction to release all the emails from the queue. Finally got the email to our account and validated that the issue was with the printer drivers not with our program as the document that we received in the email was perfect. Please contact basis team, that is not our issue.

I (Tec1) and my other friend (Tec2) who tested this application went around with our business. In about 15-20 minutes after the testing we did, one of the functional consultant stops by my desk and asks me the whereabouts of my other friend who tested the application. And the conversation went on something like this:

FC1 (Functional Consultant1): "Hey dude, have you seen Tec2? I have an important issue that I need help on."

Tec1: "What's the problem? Is there anything I can help you?"

FC1: "There is a problem with some of our form application prints and emails. Can you help me with that?"

Tec1: "What kind of problem?"

FC1: "The emails of some of the invoice documents have been sent to the customers. The help desk folks are receiving calls from the customers enquiring about the emails they received. Do you have any idea who sent it?"

I completely forgot about the transaction that I executed to trigger emails and coolly answered the guy, "Hey you know what, I am not into this email / fax applications. Please check with Tec2, you should find him in the other cubicle. Anyways, I will pass on the word to him."

FC1 makes a move from that place looking for Tec2.

In the meantime, the director of the project walks down from his office in the second floor to the ground floor looks for the technology folks and the basis team. The place where technology team sits is actually a small corner in the office where the printers are placed. No one ever will imagine that people will be sitting in that corner and working. The directors face was red with anger and was searching for the technology team leads. We were surprised to find him at our place, and someone gave him a good news about the testing they were doing with some third party systems. The director had nothing to say on hearing the news and walked away from our place.

In another 15 mins, I go about my business and was looking for FC2 to test one of my other objects. There I find FC1 and FC2 working together and trying to find the documents that were sent to customers.

Tec1 to Fc2: "Sir, can you please test my other objects that is pending approval to QA?"

Fc2: "Nopes dude, we are debugging an important issue. Some one had sent invoices to customers from our QA system? We need to get the person identified ASAP. PMO is damn serious about this."

Tec1: "Oh did the emails actual got sent to the real customers? Hmm..when did this happen?"

Fc1: "About 30 mins back."

Then the bulb glows in my mind and I (Tec1) says,,"You know what, I think I executed the buffer to debug my print issue. Anyways, this is QA box right, why will the emails go to the actual customers?"

Fc1: "Dude, as part of the mock cut over task performed in QA box the real data was loaded. All the customer details and email addresses maintained are real."

Hmm...concern..then I (Tec1) says, "Ok fine, anyways I will confirm you back; if the emails were sent because of my execution or is it the work of some other guy."

After couple of minutes, I find Fc1 and Fc2 at my desk enquiring the updates. I get into the transactions and find that it was me who sent the emails to the customers. I thought God what did I do!!?? 

While we were debugging the director sends an email to the basis team asking them to send the names of all the folks who had executed the transaction to release the mails from the buffer. My friend in the basis team sends my name and some other folks who executed the transaction that day.

In the mean time Fc1, Fc2 and Tc1 (me) went to my TL (Team Lead) and explained him the whole story. His face turned red in no-time and had his hands to his head. He too received the email from the director of the project with all the other team leads in CC regarding the incident. 

He calls the other guy i.e. Tc2 to his room and seeks explanation. He visits the director and explains him the circumstances in which we had to execute the transaction to release the emails from the buffer. We get an earful for doing that and the immediate consequence of the incident is no access to that particular transaction.

This was only one of the experiences that got messed up when Tc1 and Tc2 worked together.

Project Round Up - 2

Project Round Up 2 - the title seems is definitiely a sequel to the previous Project Round Up that I posted almost a year ago. Yeah, sticking to its title, this is definitely a sequel with the project expereinces that I gained in the project that I have worked in last one year.

The first time that I had Project Round Up was my first onsite engagement based in LA, CA. I had lot to learn on that engagement, lots of interesting and valuable experiences. Moved on from that project to another project in Denver, CO. This project also had taught me good lessons. This project I took up as a full time co-ordinator for both PI and ABAP. Man, it is tougher to survive as project onsite co-ordinator than as the full time onsite developer. 

(a) To be a successfull co-ordinator you need to be very well organised and complete your daily tasks on a daily basis. 

(b) Never have any tasks delayed for the next day. Prepare the taks list for the day and complete the tasks on a daily basis.

(c) And the most important thing is to make people work for you than having the impression that you can fix things once you get the object developed from offshore. Yeah, I agree that you will be a good developer and may have the strong technical skills but still at the end of the day you are not a machine, hence cannot fix multiple objects in a single day. If you cannot fix multiple things in a single day, you are going to loose out on the turn around time. 

(d) Never think that you are going to get things sorted out during the weekends and make up for the loss of time. Weekends are not meant for work, weekends are to be utilised for recuperating your energies and enjoy your time. Though you think you can work over the weekends your mind does not respond unless it is urgent. So no weekend work. 

(e) No online articles, newspapers, cricinfo's during work hours. Office time is meant to be spent on official work.

(f) Now, coming to the points that matter the most, communication skills and have a good / great relationship with your team lead. Your relationship with your immediate reporting manager matters that most than anything else. Keep your manager happy, this point will take you places.

(g) Always be confident of what you speak and spend the time in improving the subject knowledge.

(h) Email Communication, follow up only with Emails. This will help you keep track of the assignments, follow up with people and keet every one informed. Else you are going to spend most of your time explaining people (unnecessary effort that can be avoided and guarantees peace of mind).

I don't know why, as usual I always try to analyze the project in the end and keep a lot to be desired from the next project.

Ok, and one good thing about the as usual stuff is always I find my well wishes. As I found in my previous project, I found some real good friends and well wishers who cared about me and my achievement as much as they cared about their. Man it takes time to identify the right friends but it is always good to find them. It is never too late. Try to preserve these friendships and learn from them.

Want to be an Entrepreneur?

Before you take up the big leap to be an entrepreneur read these articles to find if you have it in you to be a successfull entrepreneur. These are the article extracts from Wall Street Journal.

I believe these articles are worth reading:

(a) First, answer these questions to see if you have what it takes

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123498006564714189.html

(b) If you're thinking about starting a business, you might not want to give up your day job just yet.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123498014787414229.html

Read it. It is worth spending your time.

(c) Create the web site for almost nothing.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121803326363016929.html

Back to Starbucks!

I am back to Starbucks. The main reason, I am not able to concentrate on my work when at home. And thought if I am back to this place where I have access to wi-fi I could atleast make some progress in my work. It has been a tough time these days, I am lacking in my work these days and need to make progress ASAP. So atleast for the next couple of days I will be here. Hopefully, by the time I return to work on Monday, I should be in a good situation. Hope so.

Anyways, I will post the progress on my blog on Monday morning, if I had a progress or this too turned out to be a routine weekend. Stay tuned for the results on Monday Morning!...

Ok..I completely forgot to post the progress..However here is the progress that I was able to make by the time that I made it to office on Monday Morning...I would say it was 70%.

http://paulgraham.com/articles.html

http://paulgraham.com/articles.html

http://iaccelerator.org/

This is an extract from : http://iaccelerator.org/
The Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad announces iAccelerator 2009 an intensive startup company assistance program geared towards first time technology entrepreneurs in India.
The iAccelerator works with brilliant first time entrepreneurs to establish well run, technically excellent, profitable technology companies in India. We use our experience setting up companies, our business network and our money to ensure that companies working with us are well formed and have access to the people and information they need to be successful.
All participants are required to live and work from Ahmedabad for 5 months from May 1 thru Sept 30. In addition to developing their products during this time, participants meet with industry veterans, learn new technologies, share what they are working on and have a great time.
We are looking for committed individuals with strong technology skills and clear ideas about how to use the internet or mobile technology to solve people’s problems, earn money and make the world a better place.
If this is you or someone you know let us know right away.
If you don’t have an idea but want to get involved with these startups with a potential to build a long term relationship, check out the EIR page.

Innovation Gap in India.

These are the comments posted in one of the blogs:
http://rate.forbes.com/comments/CommentServlet?op=cpage&sourcename=story&StoryURI=2009/02/12/india-innovation-entrpreneur-technology-enterprise-tech_0213_india.html&com=51510

by one of the readers of that blog.

Why am I posting that content in my blog? This will help us in improving our quality and look into those aspects which we need to improve on. As the famous saying goes : "Failure is the stepping stone for success!".

Posted by jefftonkel 02/13/09 12:06 PM EST


My point of view --As an entrepreneur I have been the CEO of several startups (one that used India development), the VP of Product Management for Webex (China development), Tandem Computers (India outsourcing), and most recently EVP Marketing for Integral (using India development). So I have had considerable direct experience with the subject.Back in the late 1980's and the early 1990's Tandem Computers successfully used India outsourcers to maintain stable products and other technologies that were not leading edge for the company. This worked well because the application or infrastructure was well understood and innovation was NOT required.By the early 2000's the cost advantage of offshoring to India became clear to VCs and many startups began to use India outsourcing, as first a way to reduce cost for some part of the technology, but eventually startups tried to use India for development of leading edge software applications. You can include me as one CEO that tried.In my experience using India or China for outsourcing of new technology or using India or China for development where the startup owns the subsidiary has been a TOTAL failure.The lack of skilled developers (that have perhaps ever written code for a similar application), the lack of innovation (the ability to create a better product than spec's), the drive to build large organizations with juniors doing the work and seniors only managing, and the complete lack of any understanding of the use for the product results in poor product quality, poor delivery schedules, and a significant lack of product innovation.Again, the bottom line for the startup is higher cost than anticipated exacerbated by lazy cost management on the part of the startup, late time to market, poor product quality, lack of product innovation.If I remember my history correctly, The Mythical Man Month, a book written back in the late 1960's, was a proponent of small development teams with little man

Values Frist -- N R Narayan Moorthy

http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/485/485%20interview.htm

Best Entrepreneurship Books

This is an extract from http://www.sramanamitra.com/., and here is the URL..

http://www.sramanamitra.com/2009/02/07/best-entrepreneurship-books/

www.ediindia.org

Solar Energy

Advertisement

Old Age Home

Education to Children

Food Processing

Manufacturing

Technology and S/W Development ,

Chip Manufacturing

SmartChips..eg.Restaurant device

Sports Development Academy

www.ediindia.org

Happy New Year - 2009

Hello all,

It's been a long long time that I have written something here. Got busy with regular project work friends. Anyways this is the time to celebrate...

Happy New Year 2009. May this new year bring lots of love, happiness and success to our lives.

While I spent the eve of the new year with my friends in Houston this year in a dance club, in the midst of all that dance and masti, a thought crossed my mind. I was thinking about the happiest new year celebration, the one that stands on top of the list till this year, I couldn't find one immediately. So going back .........every new year..

2009 -- Drink at Houston, with Deloitte friends. As usual my BESSSTTT Friend sends me a text message with wishes of new year.

2008 -- Times Square New York, with childhood friends. This is the new year party with largest gathering of people on earth. It was good to be friends. Interestingly, this was the first new year that I was away from home. All the previous years I celebrated with family. My BESSTTT Friend sends message with new year wishes.

2007 -- Don't exactly remember, how I celebrated the eve. But I was at home with family and think this was the one which I did not go out as one of my mates with whom I roam around was some where in Dubai. One of my other mates was lost in his prayers in Church, this fella promised me to take to Church but this guy turns up late and I fell asleep by then. And the surprise was my BESSSTTT Friend calls me from Gulf to wish on the new year. In the recent new years, this was the one which I completely spent at home without going out, unlike the previous ones.

2006 and Previous -- These new year eves were similar in celebration to a great extent. Watch television till late night at home, cut the cake and wish all the family members on New year. Then my friends will turn up at my place, go out with them, roam around all the streets in the colony, wish all the friends a happy new year ahead....In one of these years, my jaan jee the guy who would get lost in prayers in 2007, took me to Church. We spent some 15-20 mins in Church where we participated in the prayers and there is a tradition that all the devotees take out a piece of paper that is written with some devotional phrases extracted from the Holy Bible. My friend and I collected a piece each.