My Writeup: Its time

A week ago, Urban India was shocked by the following incident:
Girl raped, killed in Bangalore

The employee of Hewlett Packard in a city which is called the Silicon Valley of the east was raped and killed by a pretended HP cab driver. Its something that cannot be forgotten or forgiven. Its not just the loss of life or the pain that that the girl and her family would have had to face. But its about the very fact that even in the most urbanized locations in India, this 'stray, one-off incident' did take place.

HP and other IT and BPO firms might tighten security, Politicians and Nasscom chief, Kiran Karnik might condemn it. But the fact that its a 'stray, one-off incident' remains. The fact that there was pain, suffering and murder remains. The fact that every woman has the right to protect herself remains.

In recent years, there are lots of equipment in the western markets that help woman to defend themselves when they are cornered in such situations. The use of tasers, stun guns and aerosol sprays are just the begining of things, coupled with self-defence tactics would help her to protect herself.

Here are the list of self-defence equipments for woman.
Stun Gun
Pepper Spray

Also keep updated on all the latest equipment and self-awareness at the AWARE website. Hope we are able to make this place safer for them by spreading awareness.

My Writeup: My Engagement

My Engagement

I have got engaged to Mythreyi on Dec 14, 2005. We are looking forward for a wonderful future ahead.

Article: The ugly face of politics

RAJU NARAYANASWAMY IAS

(*IAS – Indian Administrative Service)



First Rank in State in Secondary School Examination (MD Seminary High School, Kottayam, Kerala)

First Rank in University in Plus Two (SB Collge, Changanassery)

First Rank in IIT Entrance Examination

First Rank in All India IIT Computer Science

First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination

First Rank in IAS Training Institute

On passing out from IIT Chennai Mr. Narayanaswamy was offered scholarship by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He who came from a middle class family believed that he had a moral obligation to give something in return for the lakhs of rupees the government spent on him as an IIT student. He had the intelligence and conviction to realize that this money came also from the poorest of the poor - who pay up the excise duty on textiles when they buy cloth, who pay up customs, excise and sales tax on diesel when they travel in a bus, and in numerous other ways indirectly pay the government. So he decided to join IAS hoping he could do something for the people of this country. How many young men have the will power to resist such an offer from USA? Narayanaswamy did never look at IAS as a black money spinner as his later life bears testimony to this fact.

After a decade of service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy is being forced out of the IAS profession. Do you know why?

A real estate agent wanted to fill up a paddy field which is banned under law. An application came up before Narayanaswamy who was sub collector the, for an exemption from this rule for this plot of land. Upon visiting the site he found that the complaint from 60 poor families that they will face water logging due to the waste water from a nearby Government Medical College if this paddy field was filled up was correct. Narayanswamy came under intense political pressure but he did what was right - refused permission for filling up the paddy field. That was his first confrontation with politicians.

Soon after his marriage his father-in-law closed down a public road to build compound wall for his plot of land. People approached Narayanaswamy with complaint. When talking with his own father-in-law did not help, he removed the obstructing wall with police help. The result, his marriage broke up.

As district Collector he raided the house of a liquor baron who had defaulted Rupees 11 crores payment to government and carried out revenue recovery. A Minister directly telephoned him and ordered to return the forfeited articles to the house of the liquor baron. Narayanswamy politely replied that it is difficult. The minister replied that Narayanaswamy will suffer.

In his district it was a practice to collect crores of rupees for earthen bunds meant for poor farmers,but which were never constructed. A bill for rupees 8 crores came up before Narayanaswamy. He inspected the bund. He found it very weak and said that he will pass the bill after the rainy season to ensure that the bund served the purpose. As expected the earthen bund was too weak to stand the rain and it disappeared in the rain. But he created a lot of enemies for saving 8 crores public money.

The net result of all such unholy activities was that he was asked to go on leave by the government. Later such an illustrious officer was posted as "State Co-Ordinator, Quality Improvement Programme for Schools". This is what the politician will do to a honest officer with backbone - post him in the most powerless position to teach him a lesson. Since he found that nothing can be achieved for the people if he continued with the State Service he opted for central service. But that too was denied on some technical ground. What will you do when you have a brilliant computer career anywhere in the world you choose with the backing of several advanced technical papers too published in international journals to your credit? When you are powerless to do anything for the people, why should you waste your life as the Co-Ordinator for a Schools Programme?

Mr. Narayanaswamy is on the verge of leaving IAS to go to Paris to take up a well paid United Nations assignment. The politicians can laugh thinking another obstacle has been removed. But it is the helpless people of this country who will lose - not Narayanaswamy. But you have the power to support capable and honest bureaucrats like Narayaswamy, G.R.Khairnar and Alphons Kannamthanam who have suffered a lot under self seeking politicians who rule us. You have even the power to replace such politicians with these kind of people dedicated to the country. The question is will you do the little you can do NOW? At least a vote or word in support of such personalities?

My Writeup: DNA - A new print for Mumbai readers!

DNA - Daily News & Analysis

Its a new news paper launched on Aug 30, 2005 in Mumbai. Started by the Indian television group Zee along with Dhainik Bhaskar, an Hindi daily the news paper was launched after an extensive survey of readers in Mumbai.

I had been in Mumbai 3 years back. And the only options for a good English daily was from the Times group - Times of India or Economic Times. But with DNA and Hindustan Times launched in Mumbai, we have got a wider choice in the print media.

I stumbled upon a copy of DNA recently, 'cos my rommie works with them. The content and presentation of the daily was as good as my favourite news paper The Hindu, in circulation in Southern India. DNA has some good sections and their finance and sports sections are pretty good. Many articles hold interest of the readers and the articles carry stuff that covers all sections of the educated society. Hope they continue to maintain the quality in the long run.

At present, DNA does not have a web presence. Will update this post as soon as they have one.

My Writeup: My First Trip to Melkote

Melkote is a small village near Mysore. Its my ancestral hometown and I had missed the opportunity to enjoy the serenity of the place until last weekend.

Two families setout on this most memorable trip. We started off from Chennai on the Mysore Cauvery Express on a Saturday night. Reached Srirangapatinam station on the next morning greeted by the warm sunlight of a bright Sunday. We stopped by and took our bath at the Cauvery river and setout to the Ranganathar Swami Temple. The statue of the Lord here was similar to the one at Srirangam. From here we headed off to the Bus station and took a bus to Melkote.

Melkote is around 25 Kms drive from Mandya, Karnataka. To more know about the history of Melkote refer the following link: History of Melkote

We took a walk in the evening to the two kulams (ponds) - Thangai & Akka Kulam. Legend has it that the ponds were built by 2 sisters for the people of Melkote. But the elder seemed to have calculated her expenses. Henceforth the people do not make use of the Akka kulum. On the steps of these ponds lies the sannidhi of the Alwars. Its built of burnt brick and mortor. But the carvings in the walls are pretty to see. Its partially ruined now, But ASI and The temple authorities are trying to get it repaired. Its said to be as old as the main temple (12th Century AD).

Our next stop was at the Gates to Melkote, an unfinished structure built by the then king Krishnadevaraya. We were accompanied by a guide from ASI who explained the significance of the monument and why the king had abandoned the construction due to the commencement of wars with the muslim invaders from the north. The structure looked beautiful and had carvings of the Hindu Gods and design patterns. 2 flight of stairs leads to the top of the structure on both platforms from where the whole Melkote and its surroundings is visible. Its here at Melkote, the Academy for Sanskrit Research run by Govt. of India is situtated. The link below throws more light on the activities of ASR.
Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote

Gates to Melkote

We went to the Tirunarayana temple, where we had a splendid and most unbelievable darshan. Being a native of Melkote and never being there before was no longer a big thing. I felt quite different here, I felt at home. After about 2 hours visiting the Thaiyaar sannidhi and thr Ramanujar sannidhi we left for home just to return the next morning to seek the blessings of the Guru on his janma nakshatram and the Lord Narayana in his Vishwaroopam.

on the next day, we setout for the Yoga Narasimhar temple which was situated on the hills. Enroute we came to the Kalyani kulum where we spent some time. The pond was clean and the mandapams surrounding it made it look awesome. Once we reached the top of the hill, we had our first darshan of the Lord. Following which we had our prasadams. And witnessed the thirumanjanam for the Lord. Unlike other temples in the city, people here seemed to perform the procedures with absolute perfection according to dad and mom. We took prasadams and walked back home. In the evening we took a auto back to Mandya station from where we caught the Mysore-Chennai Express back to Chennai.

To me, this trip will remain significant. Finally, the Melkotes find their way back to their ancestral home. I hope and pray to re-live what we had missed for the last 3 generations.

For photos of the trip Visit Photo Gallery of Melkote Trip

More Info at
http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/temples/melkote/

My Writeup: Storm in the Indian Cricket Team

Here are some of the articles to give you an understanding of the problem.

The news (Sept 15, 2005)
http://www.ndtv.com/sports/cricket/showstory.asp?id=24350&slug=Controversy+over+captaincy+issue+deepens&template=

Fan's support (Sept 16, 2005)
http://www.ndtv.com/sports/cricket/showstory.asp?id=24351&slug=Fans+rally+behind+Ganguly&template=

CricInfo reveals true nature of the crisis on (Sept 19, 2005)
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/story/219486.html

Having got familiar with the issue, lets take a look at what had gone wrong.
Fact 1. The Indian Captains batting form has been pathetic in the recent years.
Fact 2. Ganguly has been a great Indian Captain in the past getting us quite near to yet another World Cup win.
Fact 3. He has a good batting record in the past.

In India, cricket is a religion and the players are considered Gods. a few tons and some good bowling, they would have their own fans who could back them all the way to glory. The same holds good for Ganguly. His very fans are supporting him to continue is stinking spree of misery with the bat.

Chappell, Indian Cricket Coach has done is job in the best way, He has had the sense to drive THE FACT to our revered skipper. But the facts seems too bitter for Ganguly and his gesture revealed the heights of his ego and immaturity in dealing with the situation.

Indian Fans must start thinking about the team's future. Backing players because of a 1 or 10 match good performance so that they can retire in glory after matches of no performance at the same time being responsible for the denial of entry to young capable cricketers is absolutely no excuse. If they do ask such a thing, then BCCI and the media needs to ignore the pressure and start doing what is RIGHT for the team and the game.

My Writeup: Indian Media - Are they pioneers of modern India?

I am 26. And I have been reading, watching and understading my country to a great deal from the media here. Since mid-1980s, Indian media has come a long way. Good old print media had thrived well in the past and they still enjoy support and dedicated readership. Worth mentioning amongst these are The Hindu, Indian Express, Times of India and the Hindustan Times. Apart from these National Dailies, regional news papers in various languages have also played crucial roles and they still are the favourites among the non-English speaking masses here. Some of them worth mentioning are Ananda Bazaar (Bengali), Daily Thanthi (Tamil) and Lok Satta (Marathi).

With the emergence of television in mid 1980s, Doordarshan, state owned television took the first step. News telecasts every made every 3-4 hours during the day. The Indian public slowly moved their Entertainment centered interests to Current Affairs and Knowledge based interests. This lead the way to some of the news papers venturing into small 1-2 hr TV segments and ofcourse, there were new players too. One major mention is New Delhi Television (currently known as NDTV) and its founder and director Prannoy Roy. NDTV ventured into commentaries and live telecast on General Elections in the country and its famous weekly 'The world this week' is well known to many here. Today, NDTV is a full fledged news channel, not one but 3 - NDTV 24x7, NDTV India(Hindi) and NDTV Profit (Finance). And these channels are doing very well with their coverage of the happening in every nook and corner of the land. Along with NDTV have risen various other news/current affairs channels as well. In 2 decades, the media of this country seems so much transformed and mature.

Today, a small ad in NDTV, motivating people to rise, open up and speak the truth and stand against injustice so that its never repeated, so that its not ignored and it never goes unpunished is very inspiring. Media of this country are rising to occasions, Tehelka for instance went ahead with closed spy cams to take footage of the rich and the powerful involved in crime and illegal deals sending shiver down the spine of the country. Journalist like Burkha Dutt and Anita Pratap rising the bar by going all after the reality. These are the icons of today's India, these are trend setters of the modern India. BE BOLD, SEEK THE TRUTH they say. And its time the people rise to protect an heritage and culture which is getting lost amongst enimity, hatred, crime and money.

It is our responsibility to establish a taboo free society for the future generations. The Indian media is doing its job, Are we?

My Writeup: 10 ways to manage your offshore

This is a small writeup to share my experience in managing an offshore team. It should be of help to those IT professionals who try to manage an offshore team in their projects.

Tip 1: Know your team
Your team is your strength. Ensuring that you have the right set of resources to execute the tasks is important. Your men in offshore are generally less experienced but a right combination of skilled and motivated individuals needs to be present.

Tip 2: Reporting Structure
Once your team is established, a reporting structure needs to be established and practised. The bigger the team the more difficult the task. While doing this, care should be taken to see that key members of the team (Onsite and Offshore leads) have complete visibility of all individuals and their tasks.

Tip 3: Protect the force
Priorities of your superiors will always over rule yours. Hence the team you put to-gether might not always be yours. Ensure that you embrace them and see that the force is always with you. Diplomacy and rapport with your superiors in Offshore is important at the same time do not hesitate to leverage the power of your Onsite Relationship Managers.

Tip 4: Motivate and Innovate
Its important to motivate your team. It could start with small words of encouragement to compensated vacations. Moving good resources to onsite positions is a way to motivate the individual as well as the team. Sincere recommendation and appraisals despite Organizational constraints will help increase loyalty.

Tip 5: Filter work pressures
Every onsite co-ordinator/lead is forced to deliver more than what he is usualy told. And the success lies in doing it without complaints. Pressures from clients, superiors, relationship managers all needs to be absorbed by the onsite leads. None of these should perculate to your team. The same attitude is essential with your counterpart in offshore (lead). In short, convey the need to your team not the pressure.

Tip 6: Timely feedbacks and reporting
Feedbacks to your team is as important as the daily or weekly status reports you send to the client and your managers. Ensure all your team members are aware of the project status at all times and the same time are able to communicate it when asked to. Its your responsibilty to maintain consistency in daily reports and weekly meetings. Convince client to attend the weekly meeting so the team feels the important.

Tip 7: Absolute Control
Absolute control is never given, its to be taken. Its difficult, but with experience one learns the way to grab the reigns of the project and lead it to successful completion. Stop at nothing to get to this position. It starts with team loyalty, trust of superiors, client's support and confidence. You get these, you are resonable OK. But if you leverage these properly to build them to a greater level, with time, you will be in ABSOLUTE CONTROL.

Tip 8: Consult and be decisive
Always have trusted partners, your friends, co-workers, role-model, etc... Consult them at crucial points. Experienced people add value to the work we do. Talk to people and explain in such a manner so as to gain their interest. Never fly high, for you got to seek help and knowledge from their experiences. And when it comes to decision making always make the right one.

Tip 9: Fallback strategy
Your team is your muscle. Ensure that you do not lose it. People must be replaceable at short notices. You might hit deadends quite unexpectedly, For example: Mumabi rains of July 26th, 2005, people quiting the company for better opportunities, etc. Be prepared, have a fallback strategy and get your engines back on track.

Tip 10: Do it with style
A successful end is one where new opportunities are won. Or a mark is made that would lead to many more being taken in. Maintain great rapport with your clients, do not complain about your organization or your superiors. Go out for lunches with the team, talk NFL, Soccer, Ice Hockey. All these helps ease various other issues you might face at work. Improve your conversation ability and never hesitate to add good punch lines.

Many of these tips are difficult to adopt and some might not be applicable especially in smaller teams and where you are called to assume a role as an onsite lead while a team is already in place. The challenges are never-ending. And I do not have answers to all these situations but the essence is

Team Loyalty
Trust of your Superiors
Client's confidence and trust

My Writeup: Home is best.

Its two days since my return to India. And it feels great to be here.

There has been lots of changes in the last 2 years here, Communication in the form of landlines and mobile phones have become very affordable. The broadband factor is catching up very fast. Thanks to BSNL, high speed is available for as low as $10 a month. Stock markets seem to keep making new heights as I saw it cross the 8000 mark on the day I returned. Businesses seem to do fine and the economy looks very optimistic.

As I take pride in the developments, there were moments in the past few days which made me feel sad, especially when I saw a lady carry her baby on the back of the scooter while my cab over took them in a very close manner, and when a big road in Purasawalkam did not have lanes indicated and more when a chap aimed his empty coffee cup into a trash can/dustbin from a distance and did not bother to ensure its in place when he missed the target. More to this is the absense of road sense by autorickshaw drivers and the absense of pedestrian crossings in key intersections.

All that Indians need is discipline to catch up with the progress we are making.

Vande Mataram.

My Writeup: Some great people - part 3

I have come across some wonderful people in my life, ordinary men and women who had made a mark by their gestures and deeds. This writeup will be an ongoing one with additions made periodically as required.

Rajesh Mansharamani

Dr. Rajesh Mansharamani is the pioneer of Performance Engineering at Tata Consultancy Services. He started and heads the group.

I am very fortunate to have got the opportunity to work with him. As a matter of fact, I owe my professional success to the inital investment of his time and effort on me during the early stages of my career at TCS.

Rajesh is very simple for the talent he possesses. Staying in India after his PhD abroad, Rajesh has made a great difference to TCS and a whole bunch of Indian software engineers. His presence and synergy are the major reasons of a great cohesive force amongst the members of the group for the last 4 years.

He ensures and absorbs all pressures from the top management allowing us to work freely on problems in Performance Engineering and at the same time ensuring that we give the best that we are capable of.

I wish to see him enlighten a lot of newcomers as I and some of my colleagues had enjoyed the same.

My Writeup: Some great people - part 2

I have come across some wonderful people in my life, ordinary men and women who had made a mark by their gestures and deeds. This writeup will be an ongoing one with additions made periodically as required.

Sandeep Gandhi

I have had quite a lot of friends. But to me, Sandeep is very special.

I knew Sandeep during my Initial Training Programme at Trivandrum. He was from Mumbai and seemed quite matured and simple when compared to most of the students in our batch. His personality made him very popular in the class. He was always forthcoming to help and take responsibilities. As the days passed we became good friends. But an amazing incident changed my view about him.

We had hardly known Sandeep for 2 months at the ITP, but when myself and 3 of my friends got posted in Mumbai, Sandeep stepped forward and asked us to come to his place. All of us were just out of college and none had been to Mumbai or had lived on our own before. So the thought of living and working in Mumbai was a sort of trance for the 4 of us. But it was at this time, Sandeep came over to the station and not only accomodated me, but all my 3 friends for the next 2 weeks at his small apartment at Dombivili. I was moved by this gesture of Sandeep and his family especially his mom and sis for being so supportive for us and I am greatly indepted to him.

For Sandeep, I pray, may God bless you with the best in life.

My Writeup: Some great people - part 1

I have come across some wonderful people in my life, ordinary men and women who had made a mark by their gestures and deeds. This writeup will be an ongoing one with additions made periodically as required.

My Periamma

Periamma is the tamil relation for mom's elder sister.

My mom had 4 elder sisters but to me she was just the one. I am really honored to have known her. But not many in my family realize what this woman has achieved for herself and her family.

She worked hard right from a very young age, an age at which girls and boys would be free of all responsibilities and submerge in a carefree world protected by their parents. She nurtured and brought up my mom, educated themselves, worked and invested all by themselves, settled in life and supporting her daughters and husband with all her heart and strength especially through tough times of health problems and financial issues. She came out of all of them successfully. She Got her daughter married to a wonderful son-in-law and retired peacefully after performing tasks that I could simply term as 'Herculean'.

In a time where most women in India required support of fathers, brothers and husband, she stood apart, she raised all bar and stood shoulder to shoulder taking all the family reponsibilites. To her I solute.

My Writeup: My niece

My niece is a year and 2 months now. She is cute and looks like an angel and smiles like a blossomed flower. I love her and consider her to be my favourite baby of all times.

While in Pittsburgh, I used to make frequent trips to Mclean to spend time with her and cuddle her. Brinda was a tall baby and she was quite funny. I saw her sit for the first time and I was excited seeing her stand for the first time. But soon time made a mark and I had to carry on with my life, I moved to a new job profile - Consulting and with it came travel. I missed my niece in action, since April 2005. She has learned to walk, run and talk small words, Today, when I heard her call me "Mama" over phone, my joy knew no bounds. I was thrilled and the rhythm in her voice as she continued saying mama almost brought tears of joy to my eyes.

I am hopeful to see her in a week.

My Writeup: A memorable trip to Grand Canyon

I had been to Grand Canyon before and that was the very reason I wanted to visit the spot again.

One of my client in Phoenix called it - "A big hole in the ground" . In reality, Grand Canyon is a unique place to visit. There are quite a lot of things you can do there. Trek, drive, shoot photos and take a canyon trip on a chopper or a small airplane. The Grand Canyon looks just amazing through the day and the shadow cast on the canyon by passing clouds makes it look even attractive. But the best of the canyon would be seen with every sunrise and sunset.

I am yet to trek the canyon, mainly due to lack of time and good company, But managed to take a flight trip across the canyon with a friend this time, who happened to possess fear of heights. This friend of mine sings well and happened to know almost all hindi songs. On our way back to Phoenix, she displayed cool traits of a good DJ as she played some of the long forgotten songs that I used to sing and listen with my sis and mom in my childhood.

Here is a link to the photo gallery of this trip.
Grand Canyon - Trip 2

My previous trip photo gallery is
Grand Canyon - Trip 1

Here is the link to know about the place
http://www.nps.gov/grca/grandcanyon/

Here is the link for the chopper and aircraft rides
http://papillon.com/
http://www.grandcanyonairlines.com

My Writeup: Crime against women in the capital

It was yet another shocking incident.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/12/stories/2005081213400100.htm

These are real issues and they seem to be a trend in India's capital city. Its definitly a wakeup call to the city's Law and order. These 3 incidents of a Swiss diplomat, Univ student and now a minor girl being assaulted is very disturbing. And to add to this, Delhi police has not resolved these cases so far. I wonder how many other similar cases have gone unmentioned.

The incident makes me recall something similar that took place in the Mumbai local few years back. Where a mentally challenged minor girl was assaulted while 3 other witnesses were watching rather than take firm action against the attacker. I firmly believe its people who needs to put an end to this if Law and Order does not do it. Mumbai is supposed to be the safest city for women. But we need to guard this for the years to come as more and more women step onto the podium and start facing challenges shoulder to shoulder with men.

Hope someone (all of us) step up to eradicate this plague before it takes a bigger form.

My Writeup: Google Vs Yahoo!

Hey! Do you see what I am seeing. Seems Google and Yahoo! have locked horns?

Google launched Gmail, Maps (not my facourite service), Froogle (still in beta), Local (my favourite) and they have done rather well with their products and services. With an ever increasing mailbox size, people are quite attackted to Gmail. Now with Google powering Orkut, Blogger, Picassa and Hello they really have gone a long way from whether they have started.

On the other hand, we see Yahoo! trying to live upto expectations by increasing their mail box size to 1 GB. And with the launch of Yahoo 360! they really are catching up with what they had missed out.

Google needs a messenger service to level with Yahoo!'s YIM. But at this time Google seems to be concentrating on a Mozilla based web browser. But can't be surprised if Google takes over Skype, one of my favourite Messaging system with exceptional voice quality.

So hold on and watch these companies closely.

Article: Magic mantras for corporate success

A man who had just been hired as the new CEO of a large corporation met with the outgoing CEO, who gave him three numbered envelopes. "Open these if you run up against a problem you can't solve," he said.

Six months later, sales took a downturn and the new CEO was really catching a lot of heat. Uncertain about how to proceed, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The paper inside simply said, "Blame your predecessor."

The new CEO called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous CEO. Satisfied with his comments, the press and Wall Street responded positively, sales began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.

About a year later, the company was again experiencing a slight dip in sales, combined with serious product problems. Having learned from his previous experience, the CEO quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, "Reorganize."

He did, and the company quickly rebounded.

After several consecutive profitable quarters, the company once again fell on difficult times. The CEO headed straight for the third envelope. The message said, "Prepare three envelopes."

Article: If Indians begin outsourcing

It is the year 2020 and call centers are opening all over the West, as the new economic power India outsources work to the countries where many jobs originated. Millions of Americans, still struggling to adapt to a global economy, are willing to accept jobs that pay them in a new currency sweeping much of the world: EuRupees.

Some of them, eager to land one of the customer service jobs from India, are attending special training sessions in New York City, led by language specialist Dave Ramsey, who goes by a simpler name for his Indian clients: Devendra Ramaswaminathan.

On this warm afternoon, the professor is teaching three ambitious students how to communicate with Indian customers.

Professor: "Okay, Gary, Randy and Jane, first we need to give you Indian names. Gary, from now on, you'll be known to your customers as Gaurav. Randy, you'll be Ranjit. And Jane, you'll be Jagadamba. Now imagine you just received a call from Delhi. What do you say?"

Gary: "Name as tea?"
Professor: "I think you mean 'namaste.' Very good. But what do you say after that?"

Gary: "How can I help you?"
Professor: "You're on the right track. Anyone else?"
Jane: "How can I be helping you?"
Professor: "Good try! You're using the correct tense, but it's not quite right. Anyone else?"

Randy: "How I can be helping you?"
Professor: "Wonderful! Word order is very important. Okay, let's try some small talk. Give me a comment that would help you make a connection with your Indian customers."

Randy: "It's really hot, isn't it?"
Professor: "The heat is always a good topic, but you haven't phrased it correctly. Try again."

Randy: "It's deadly hot, isn't it?"
Professor: "That's better. But your tag question can be greatly improved."

Randy: "It's deadly hot, no?"
Professor: "Wonderful! You can put 'no?' at the end of almost any statement. You are understanding me, no?"

Jane: "Yes, we are understanding you, no?"
Professor (smiles): "We may need to review this later. But let's move on to other things. Have you ever heard Indians use the word 'yaar'?"

Randy: "Yes, my Indian friends use it all the time. Just last night, one of them said to me, 'Randy, give me yaar password. I am needing it to fix yaar computer."
Professor (laughs): "That's a different 'yaar,' yaar. The 'yaar' that I'm talking about means friend or buddy. You can use it if you've developed a camaraderie with a customer. For example, you can say, 'Come on, yaar. I am offering you the best deal.' Do you understand, Jagadamba?"

Jane: "Yaar, I do."
Professor (smiles): "Okay, let's talk about accents. If your client says 'I yam wery vorried about vat I bought for my vife,' how would you respond?"
Randy: "Please don't be vorrying, yaar. She vill be wery happy and vill give you a vild time tonight."

Professor: "Vunderful! I mean, wonderful. You have a bright future, Ranjit. And so do you, Jagadamba. But Gaurav, you haven't said anything in a while. Do you have any questions about what we've just learned?"

Gary: "Yes, Professor, I do have one question: Wouldn't it be simpler to learn to speak Hindi?"

My Writeup: Discrimination at workplace...A Bengali fact??

I work for an Indian software solution provider. I tend to move from one project to another and this brings me to work with various Project managers. In this article, I am recalling a set of incidents during my work at Pittsburg, PA.

Over the first 9-12 months in the project things went quite smoothly. I had made good impact to the team and the client loved my work. My responsibilities increased and I stood upto it beyond any of my colleagues. My colleagues constituted mostly of people from Kolkata and I had some very good Bengali friends whom I had the opportunity to move with during my Initial Training program days.

The issues began with my appraisal. During the appraisal one-to-one with my manager, it was agreed to give me a rating of 4/5. But upon return after a trip back home, I was informed that my rating was 3 and my promotion which had been due was stalled. This shocked me and I had to make major decisions on rewriting the entire records that was planned behind my back. Moreover, I was taken aback when I came to know that my bengali friend in the team had received a 5. Well, i wondered not whether he deserved it, but why was I treated to an injustice when it came to an appraisal. In the next few days, as the ratings of various people in the account came up, there seemed to be a clear demarcation in the ratings. Bengali associates received ratings of 4 and 5 where as most of the non-Bengali associates received 3 and some even 2.

I did wage a lone battle and won it to some extent. But never again I would want to be wasting time fighting for something I deserve.

I wonder can a Bengali's be true friend? Can there be ethnic discrimination when it comes to them? My advice if you are a non-Bengali, please stay away working under one.

Photo: My Periamma and Periappa

Photo: My dad and mom

Photo: With my sisters - Harini and Hema

Photo: With my parents

Article: Don't copy if you can't paste.

Not too long ago, a large seminar was held for ministers and reverends in training.
Among the facilitators were many well-known motivational speakers.
One such speaker boldly approached the pulpit and, gathering the entire crowd's attention, said, "The best
years of my life were spent in the arms of a woman who wasn't my wife!"
The crowd was shocked! He followed up by saying,
"That woman was my mother!" The crowd burst into laughter and he gave his speech, which was well received.

About a week later, one of the ministers who had attended the seminar decided to use that joke in his sermon. As he
shyly approached the pulpit one sunny Sunday, he tried to rehearse the joke in his head. It was a bit foggy to him. Getting to the microphone he said loudly, "The greatest years of my life were spent in the arms
of a woman who was not my wife!"

His congregation sat shocked, murmuring. After standing there for almost
10 seconds trying to recall the second half of the joke, the pastor finally blurted out "...and I can't remember who
she was!"

Moral of the story: Don't copy if you can't paste.

My Writeup: My Photo Album

Please feel free to checkout my photo albums at Webshots

http://community.webshots.com/user/melkotes

It has got over 10 albums of which all photos have been taken by me. There have been a lot of views so I can say that they are real good.

My Writeup: Indian Markets - Is it speculative?

Well I am stunned by the way Indian Stock Market is booming beyond any explanation. Seems like there is a lot of speculation and hype thats driving the securities jump to new heights. I am planning to watch carefully before throwing money in.

Article: Loyalty

Scientists at the Rocket launching station in Thumba, were in the habit of working for nearly 12 to 18 hours a day. There were about Seventy such scientists working on a project. All the scientists were really frustrated due to the pressure of work and the demands of their boss but everyone was loyal to him and did not think of quitting the job.

One day, one scientist came to his boss and told him - Sir, I have promised to my children that I will take them to the exhibition going on in our township. So I want to leave the office at 5 30 pm.

His boss replied - O K, , You are permitted to leave the office early today.

The Scientist started working. He continued his work after lunch. As usual he got involved to such an extent that he looked at his watch when he felt he was close to completion.The time was 8.30 p.m

Suddenly he remembered of the promise he had given to his children. He looked for his boss,,He was not there. Having told him in the morning itself, he closed everything and left for home.

Deep within himself, he was feeling guilty for having disappointed his children.

He reached home. Children were not there.His wife alone was sitting in the hall and reading magazines. The situation was explosive, any talk would boomerang on him.

His wife asked him - Would you like to have coffee or shall I straight away serve dinner if you are hungry. The man replied - If you would like to have coffee, i too will have but what about Children?

Wife replied- You don't know - Your manager came at 5 15 p.m and has taken the children to the exhibition.

What had really happened was

The boss who granted him permission was observing him working seriously at 5.00 p.m. He thought to himself, this person will not leave the work, but if he has promised his children they should enjoy the visit to exhibition. So he took the lead in taking them to exhibition The boss does not have to do it everytime. But once it is done, loyalty is established.

That is why all the scientists at Thumba continued to work under their boss eventhough the stress was tremendous.

By the way , can you hazard a guess as to who the boss was?

He was A P J Abdul Kalam.

Photo: Tanjore temple

The panoramic view of the Tanjore Temple

Speech: You've got to find what you love

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

My Writeup: A Chinese Colleague

Everything has a begining, so is this recent experience in working along with a Chinese colleague. I moved to San Francisco in early April 2005 to work with a leading CRM ASP. Its here that I found that I was reporting to a Chinese American. Though our initial meetings went well and we set out to make the best out of the engagement I was asked not to copy the status to his Manager. Thinking it was a hierarchial protocol in the firm, I followed it to the word.

Over the next 2 weeks I became aware of the fact that his Manager who had been responsible for hiring me was not much aware of the efforts made by my team. Some of the suggested process improvements and training recommendations were ignored as well. Moreover, I was taken aback when every recommendation submitted was displayed as a work done by him with few modifications. I realized that it was important to make a mark and ensure that the Manager gets an awareness that the engagement is successful at the same time keeping the rapport with my Chinese colleague.

2 opportunities came my way. He had to leave for a major business initiative in China which got me reporting to his Manager. Moreover the second was the presence of an Indian collegue who did not hesitate to take my ideas through to the VP. In the next two weeks, I had made a difference transforming ideas into reality. The enagagement extended to twice the time specified and we came out of it well.

In the end of it all, it was quite a learning experinece. Througout this period I had maintained a steady output at the same time initiating areas that would improve the quality of work from their own employees.

And as far as my Chinese colleague, he had no regrets and wished me to come back and work for them.

My Writeup: Ancient Indian History Revealed

In recent years, various discoveries and excavations in India revealed new facts about the ancient Indian History and the origin of the Aryan race. In the past few weeks, I have been reading the details on the discoveries of Archeological Survey of India in addition to media reports on the discoveries and facts upon ancient Indian civilization.

Aryan Invasion Theory

During the British rule in India, the Aryan Invasion Theory came to existence. The Invasion theory explained that an European tribe invaded India about 1500 BC. The Aryans were said to be the founders of the Vedas and the Hindu civilization.

But new discoveries of a sophisticated urban civilizations made in Harappa and Mohen-jo-daro (currently in West Punjab and Sind), which were older than 1500 BC. Following this discovery, the orientalist scholars came up with the theory that these people were Dravidians (i.e., dark, as opposed to the the fair skinned blue eyed Aryans) and their civilization was destroyed by invading Aryans and they were moved to Southern India with a reduced status.

These theories were accepted by the Indians. However, recent archaeological developments and intellectual freedom there has been intense discussions on this issue and AIT has become more and more untenable.


Anti-AIT Theory



Anti-AIT Theory Arguments

Lets take a look at the arguments that Historians put in favour of AIT and try to disprove them.

Point 1:
The similarities between Sanskrit, Latin and Greek prove that there was once a proto Indo-European language, from which all three are descended. The oldest form of Lithunian language found dates only upto 1500 A.D, but it is similar to reconstructed IE. A language does not keep such archaic phonology and morphology intact if it has interacted with other cultures. Therefore its speakers must have kept so close to their hooriginalmeland that too much change was avoided. Therefore, IE must have its source in a region near it.

Counter Point:
A common source does not prove the direction of migration; it can very well be that the Aryan tribes travelled from India to Europe. No common root word has been found which date back beyond 700 B.C. So it is possible that whatever identical words we find is due to trade contacts from the Mohen-jo-daro period. As regards Lithunia, it is well known that primitive groups who shun contact with outsiders and are unprogressive will keep their archaic ways and language much longer. There is nothing to stop a tribe from travelling to Lithunia and settling down there. Also, if this argument is valid, then one must point out that Vedic Sanskrit has a large number of vocables which are not present in such numbers in any other Indo-European language and its consonants are purer. This suggests that ancient Sanskrit is the original source, or at any rate the oldest source.


Point 2:
The language of Vedas and that of Avesta in ancient Persia is nearly identical: "Almost any Sanskrit word may be changed at once into its Avestan equivalents merely by applying certain phonetic laws". Most tellingly, in Vedas the gods or devas are addressed as asuras, but later asura became the name for demons; but in Zorastranism, asura is the name for gods throughout while devas are portrayed negatively. Thus it is obvious that the Persian religion is the older version while Vedic tribes split away from it.

Counter Point:
This does not prove that the composers of Vedas had passed through, or came from Iran. It might be that the Persians were the ones who broke away due to a quarrel. They could have used only one term for their gods to distinguish them from the other gods worshipped by their original tribe. The fact that in Vedas Asuras first meant lord/god but later came to mean demons can be an indication that after strife with Avesta group the nomenclature acquired a different meaning through association with the enemy. This theory is supported on the grounds that in 500 B.C, Xerxes forcibly suppressed the worship of Devas in his kingdom.


Point 3:
The river Indus is called 'sindhu' meaning sea. India has oceans for her borders, yet a mere river is called sea, proving that the writers had never seen the sea. Surely then most of the Vedas were composed outside India.

Counter Point:
Wrong. The proper term for sea in Vedas is 'samudra'. This term is used frequently throughout various portions of the Rig-Veda and Varuna (one of the oldest Vedic gods who is mentioned in a 1400 B.C Hittite inscription) is categorically stated to be lord of oceans.


These are just a few points of the entire argument. You can read them in the following link

http://www.comparative-religion.com/hinduism/origins/#anti-ait-arguments

My Writeup: A new begining

This day marks the end of nearly 2 years at Pittsburgh. It indeed was a memorable time. It was here that I first learned to drive a car, it was here I learnt to live in US, it was here that my mom visited me, and it was the very place I had made a lot of friends.

But as I turn the page today, I am moving to Minneapolis to start yet again in a group which I enjoyed working for at TCS. A group that had made me, what I am today and what I stand for in professionalism. And hence with the sadness of departing from Pittsburgh and I am looking for a new beginning in my career.

My Writeup: Skype

Skype is the new player in the Instant Messaging market. Well, did I say IM? Look again. This little product is damn amazing. The sound quality is exceptionally good even for distances from US to India.

Based on the P2P technology, Skype has a limitation getting into Corporates for the time being since Corps consider P2P forbidden.

If you don't skype, you suck. Don't take my word for it, Just Try It! - skype

SKYPE fan