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