Emigration : Check OK Please.

September 17th :Night before the flight.
Emigration checklist
Flu : Check : Slight with a bad cold.
Excess baggage :Check : Yup by 7 kilos ..
Stomach : Strangely normal ? ( need to reconfirm)
Parents and neighbours - drowning their Ahem sorrows in toddy a.k.a Black label

Things seem to in chaos as usual. So guess I would have a good flight. Anyways... the bags that were weighing 22 kg and 10 kg in the morning were 35 and 12 by 7 in the evening. The last minute frantic efforts to "un-stuff" my stuffed up suitcase began with eliminating all my dear books and then off when the food, socks and all the other heavy stuff ...In the end I have 20 shirts , 4 trousers , a badminton racket, my camera tripod and a mini or rather micro Pressure cooker.. and i have no clue how this comes to 30 kilos ...
Tied up all lose ends , made call to my closes friends and family and had a good night sleep after a sumptuous meal of biriyani and fish fry ...

The next morning .....
Driver : Late as usual by half an hour
Bags: 9.2 Kg ( i knew i could slip in a book or 2)
Immigration at Chennai : they always come with the lamest of reasons to trouble me ... the last time it was that i don't look like the person in my passport .. this time it was even weirder ... He asked me where I lived. The moment he heard that i stayed at KHADER NAWAZ KHAN road, there was a long pregnant silence ... and then he looks at me and asks with a very suspicious tone... Khader Nawaz Khan road ?

I thought i was done for ... but then he changed his mine ... i guess for a moment sanity took over and he must have realized that the name of the road that i lived in doesn't necessarily mean I am a terrorist ..

Boarded the flight and reached Dubai ... walked around feeling miserable about the obscene way in which Dubai was showing off its wealth ... seriously ... when u fly over Dubai .. u get to see a lot of work going on .. BUILDING ISLANDS ....

That aside ... boarded the flight to Birmingham ...
Emigration: Cake walk. A nice gentleman asked me for my LSE papers and wish me luck. That's about it ... No long Qs no waiting .... all done in a matter of 30 minutes ... and i was out ... Birmingham sure has its advantages over London ...

Good night !

Dear Dr Kalam, Oh My My !

Aug 16 2007

In a land where the most powerful person is an Italian lady, where the Prime Minister is a Sikh, the most respected gentleman,the President of the Nation is a Muslim and the most respected businessman is a Parsi, in a Land that we call Hindustan, our motherland, yesterday was celebrated as her 60th Independent Day as a Nation.

This, I fear is the biggest joke.

Today India is crawling on her knees, the weight of our selfishness crushing the very sense of Independence that we claim to have achieved. Today we are slaves, chained and shackled to the very system that we have been creating for the last 60 years. And do we care ? No!

Respected Dr. Kalam, I bow my head in shame.

Today, the Deccan Chronicle, in its supplement, came up with a shocking poll, a poll reflecting the thoughts of the "youth" , the very youth in which you have rested all your faith in bettering this nation.

The poll suggests -

• 100% of the youth are unhappy with India.
• 83% want to change the system.

This fury is omnipresent. Ignoring it would be baseless.

This should mean revolution...a revolution resulting from the premises now in existence.

However, the remainder of the poll is a shocking revelation...

• .17% - Want to join politics
• 63 odd% - Want to settle abroad / study abroad

We accuse and point fingers, but are not ready to get our hands dirty.

We are not ready to be the change that we want to see.

We rave and rant against the system, we are oblivious of the intellectual drain steadily gushing out of the country. Its time we set things right. But then "Who will bell the cat?"

This attitude ,dear President, cuts from under our feet the very foundation you want us to establish. We are , above all, our own grave diggers.

I have a strong urge to join politics, to become a civil servant. But then I fear the change. I fear the system. I fear failure ...

I am guilty as charged!

Its time to re-evaluate our priorities, re-evaluate ourselves and do our India proud. Empty words...? I hope not.

" haath jin mein ho junoon katt te nahi talvaar se

sar jo uth jaate hain voh jhukte nahi lalkaar se

aur bhadkega jo shola-sa humaare dil mein hai

sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai "

Its time we earn our Independence!

sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamaare dil mein hai

Fastforward 2 years at Infosys...

Oft said ... first impressions last forever...

My journey with Infosys began on the 28th of August 2005. It took me more than a few days to come to terms with the fact that I was in India, and that too in the sleepy ol' town of Mysore with its 1950's taxis and dosa-idli shops. I was awestruck with the massive building set against a backdrop of serene skies and bright green country side. I felt like a fainéant king, with no intention to study, rather to spend all the while gawking at the obsence luxury that lay sprawling in front of me. Monday , the 29th of August, work as usual... Classes, play assignements and the fear that our hostel would be invaded by a batch from China... the thought itself filled most of us with trepidation... and yes , I am one of those lesser mortal who is guilty of having fostered such feelings.

September 5 2007. The chinese have arrived. This is worth a mention as I should be kicked , over and over again for even have thought so wrong about them folks. At 2 in the night, a tiny young lad walked in profusely apologising for having woken me up. I greeted him , helped him with his bags and realized that we had not yet introduced ourselves. I guess both of uss shared the same apprehension. I then went about asking his name. His reply was remarkable . He said ... You can call me...hmmmm... a short pregnant silence ... Christ ... Only later did I realize that this was a name he had thought up at the spur of the moment. And for the record , we are talking about Ho Chi Hou, a.k.a Baba( the Indian name I gave him, after good ol thalaivar Rajini.), the most sought after Chinese at Mysore.

The 100 odd folks from China are all good friends of mine. We share a lot of nice memories of a lot of crazy things that we did together . The trips to Alleppy and athirampally, to pondicherry , bangalore pubs, sunrise at Marina , and single handedly rounding up all the couple who suddenly disaapeared close to nightfall at the beach at Mahabs , a bus full of us going over to Swathi's place to take a leak...and of course how can I forget all the football and basket ball... hmm fills me with nostalgia.

Cut to sometime in November.... I suddenly find myself in a totally different world. A dry boring world with nothing much to do. Your guess is right ... I was on bench !!!

Cut to January... This was the single best thing that has ever happened in my career.
After pestering Bhaskar (my delivery manager) to assign me some work...any work (.Net developement project, yea right , the ass tat i am , i thought Infosys should not be shy of quality work ) , i was asked to meet up with Arun C.B , the great

We met up at the Lotus fc for a bday party and from then on my life has never been the same.
At this point I would like to mention some of the people who made a lot of difference to me and helped me realize my potentials. Arun , Nithin , Karthik... i salute to u

Within 6 months , i independenltly created tools to cut down a lot of project costs. Fine tuned processes, brought in automation and re-use and incremental innovation and created a casse -study , which was presented in front of the management council.
Within no time, I was being recommended to other projects - Cisco, tyco , ingram , Apple....

Arun has set high hopes on me. He believes in me ,and has taught me to believe in myself and my abilities.
I hope to do well in my life. Nothing can be compared to the exhilaration that I feel when I create something new, when I make my ideas into reality, more-so-ever when they are one of those hare-brained ideas that I always tend to come up with. Arun, you taught me the joy of thinking ! I never realized that I could ...ahem ...Think !

We always used to share this personal joke. Everytime I used to ask him " So Arun , when do you want it done?" he would always have the reply "YESTERDAY ! " Arun, my best friend , has played a great role in moulding me into who I am today. So folks if you are not happy he is the person you have to blame. :P

I have been able to carve a niche for myslef thanks to all these people ... I have been awarded the Reward and Recognition award for Project Exceution and Technical Capability, got into revenue projection for Ingram Micro as well as into Knowledge Management and Employee Satisfaction and Employee Relation (ER) activities.

Currently , for the last 9 months, I have been working on "Aspire " a framework to improve employee satisfaction(ESAT) in my IBU (Business Unit). The Idea has been presented and has now become an IBU level tool.

Hurray, I am proud of my self ,and no I am not vain!

No, I have not mentioned these accomplishments , to bore the reader , nor am i trying to hide this behind a cloak of modesty. My intentions are very simple. I would like to remind myself of this journey ...all the hard work...bits of luck and of all the fun.

Technology –The way I see it. Part 1

I expect there to be a second part

Today’s frenzied development in the fields of science and technology has filled me with a lot of disapproval. It is a hectic, agitated expansion with absolutely no regard to anything that surrounds it.

For the people involved directly, they know that the collapse is past, the hopelessness has set in and the disintegration of science is all but complete. Why has the inevitable happened? Technology, only a few years back seemed omnipresent. It had come with a bang, and it looked like it was there to stay forever. This reminds me of the state of Religion today, and I believe science is headed that way.

It’s funny how, not too long ago, in the nineteenth century, Religion was concerned supreme and they refused to recognize Science. Today we stand on the other end of the spectrum. Science refuses to accept Religion, calling it absolutely foolish and baseless. But it’s this attitude that will bring to knees, technology and consequently materialism, the fruit of science and technology, is already groaning with the sorrows of its own creation. Neither can survive without each other and as long as this dispute exists, men would continue suffering their own inner insufficiencies and scream murder, in days not too long from today. Science tries to address the materialistic aspects of life, to bring comfort and make life easier. Wonderful, no doubt, but it burdens man with endless anxiety and craving to posses more

Religion in its true sense is about discovering ourselves. The Vedanta insists that man is essentially perfect and therefore infinite are the possibilities that lie lurking in him. It should be our dharma to stop questioning how much talent each one of us has, but how much of our talents can be explore , develop and exploit. Science and religion can help us reach there. Modern science helps man gain a mastery over the outside world, religion helps is strengthen our inner knowledge. This would be what any fundamentalist (not the self proclaimed fundamentalists who have waged war on humanity, the real ones) would till you, irrespective of religion.
Are we going back to the world of serfdom… failing to recognize that we are slaves to the system? Man, the principal entity, has been taken for granted. He has specific capabilities and needs and these seem to have been given superficial attention. Quoting Ayn Rand’s (footnotes to Atlas Shrugged) idea about the comparatively young sciences as psychology and political economy… In psychology, one may observe to attempt to study human behavior without reference to the fact that man is conscious. In political economy, one may observe the attempt to study and to devise social systems without any reference to man. How ironic, how totally mindless.

Science seems to be in its adolescence, I just hope it doesn’t end up being a spoilt brat.

DISCLAIMER ! ! !

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My posts are not for the old or for the young - in years or heart- because I believe either of them would scoff at these. They woudnt make much sense unless and until you are able to strike a chord with my way of thinking. If you are here to improve your vocabulary, then let me forewarn you, its not a risk worth taking. There are better blogs in this regard. My statements are a collection of thoughts that race through my mind, most times of the day, and this is just of compilation of these. They may be unjust, politically incorrect , incoherrent and what not. There would be a few interesting reads interspersed between a whole lot of emotional diarrhea. Be prepared for the worst if you still care to proceed.
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Wiked minds ....

July 25 2007
Why is that, we as Indians, lack so much in the respect department? It must be because we dont respect ourselves?
We learn, over the years to respect each other, but as we grow up, we just toss that into the bin. If you peek into the life of an average Indian person, it is pretty shallow. There is not much in there except competetion, competetion and more competetion. Think about it, there is competetion everywhere... On the road , with no space to drive, at work with thousands eyeing your job. Even when you are on the look out for your life partner ( or as a matter of fact a girl to flirt around with ) you find hoards of guys and no girls. And the result ..tada .. fuck respect .
I find it difficult to digest this and more so becuase I dont think I am left with a choice. If i tried , it would be like driving on the other side of the road.

I wish all this would change...

This would be the driest post i would be doing in a while... Hope something interesting comes up soon

On Bench! And no work ?

Dec 2005.

This is an episode, the less talked about the better. My first day at work!
I did not know that suprise upon surprise awaits me. There were ten of us to be allocated to HTDM (thats Hi Tech Discrete Manufacturing for those who really care to know) and the surprise was I was the 11th. Yea , I wasnt on the damn list. I was supposed to be at Bhubhaneswar and not Bangalore. ?? Anyways after a lot of convincing and going through numerous spreadshets and hearing a lot of techie terms like "not synched" "no issues" (But I did have an "issue": I did not WANT TO GO TO BHUBS) and the sort, they finally decided that I was better of at Bangalore. Great. Now lets get to work. Work? Sorry buddy you are on BENCH! .

Benchers brings to my mind , the superficial English country gentleman, the likes of the Vicar of Wakefield, somebody with a lot of time and puzzled about what to do with it. Day one was just of the sorts. Had a beautiful Mac machine worth raving about and no id to log into it. Forget the luxury of Internet . Damn