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.