I wrote about the disappointment and the subsequent fun I had at Malaga during one of the Christmas season. I submitted the article in one of the travel website. When I get enough time, I will include this in my website as well. Hope to write much more like this. You can read the article here.
Software tells me, I am a male
I got this URL from another blog. An Israeli scientist had developed an algorithm which analyses one’s writing to find out the gender. I pasted few of my blogs and hurray! it prints out the amazing result: You are a Male. I never doubted the fact, but, to tell you the truth, I was bit anxious of the result. Hey! pretty girl, shall we go dating?
You can try the analysis at: http://www.bookblog.net/gender/genie.html
Konjam Velai; Konjam Kadali
We are three in the team. The other two have girl friends within the firm. It is quite often that their girls want to speak to them. One guy is on the extreme; he goes for lunch and dinner only with her. He hardly joins others – in these three months, only once. As I take coffee breaks, they take chatting breaks. These breaks give us the energy to get going for the day.
By the way the title means, little bit of work and little bit chat (with a girl)
Getting the pinch of offshore model
I got my cell phone ringing today morning at 5.30. ‘Good morning Joseph’, my team lead was on the other side, ‘we have a production problem. I want you to come over here at the earliest. If you want I will arrange for a car pick up’. If I take a car pick up then coming back will be difficult, so I refused the pick up and said that I will be there in an hour. A quick shower and then on to the road.
It is always difficult to clean up other’s shit. Add to it, there are no comments explaining what the code is. It took me sometime before I got the logic. Once the lousy logic was understood, it was easy to fix. Around 11, the shit was clean.
What I found strange is, there is no please or thank you. Also when there is a need, the firm goes out of its way in arranging a car pick up. But when it is over, you are just left on your own. The only satisfaction I get is, I have what it takes to put up with the shit and clean it as well.
Our leaders show the way, at least after death
The other day I had to go a restaurant. Unlike in Europe (and possibly US too), here we don’t use maps. And there aren’t many sign posts either. So how do we get to a place? Either we already know where it is, or we stop here and there and ask around. To avoid asking total strangers, I asked a colleague for the way. This is what he said, ‘Take the airport road, first you will cross Nehru Statue, go further down until Sardar Patel Statue, then take a left and follow the road until Thevar Statue, where you take a right. On the first left is the restaurant’. If you are not used to Chennai traffic system, this instruction will put you on a spin. But we are used to these statues for leaders of yester-years.
I don’t know how much of respect they got while they were alive, but most of them get at least a statue and multiple garlands whenever our politicians want to display a show. And for their part, these leaders stand still and be a part of ‘finding our way’.
In search of the future
During their heydays, Vantive (a CRM product) consultants enjoyed a great deal of demand and thus prospered well. For most of them it lasted more than half a decade making them an object of envy. However every beginning has an end and their end came in the form of Peoplesoft (PSFT) buying Vantive. Even there we saw a ray of hope as PSFT continued their support for Vantive and released a migration path for existing Vantive installations. So it seemed that, after a dip, we will be back on demand if we would all learn PSFT. Then came the unpleasant surprises – the downturn of economy due to 9/11; but the monstrous threat came in the form of Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle corporation. He unleashed a hostile bid to take over PSFT shaking the confidence of the clients, who were planning a migration to PSFT, across the globe. Not just them, but us too. We don’t know if we should go ahead and invest in PSFT training or get trained in SAP (another ERP tool which is so big that Larry wouldn’t dare to bid) or better to wait.
Some lucky fellows got their contracts extended; others got into other IT fields like analysis; few are going for PSFT training; others for SAP. But all of us are waiting how this episode is going to unfold.
For once, I am wondering whether to invest in private training or wait for the firm to come up with something.
Something of nothing
Yesterday (Thursday) I went to donate blood for an open heart surgery. The patient’s son works in our firm and he sent a request via email. The surgery was supposed to be at 8h00. But due to other emergency operations it got postponed until 13h30. We were two donors, the second donor also came from our firm. As we were fresh-blood-donors we were asked to wait until the patient was taken in. Then we donated blood and after a while I came to office. In the night my co-worker called me to inform that the operation went well and his father is doing fine in the ICU.
I felt happy that I could be of help. Something good out of seemingly good for nothing life.
Riding through the bumpy roads
Chennai traffic could be described in just one word – chaotic, like any other aspect of life here. To ride through swinging cyclists, weaving auto-rickshaws, crisscrossing buses and patches and potholes all over the road, one should have not only an enduring will but also quick reflexes and a strong backbone. It is definitely not for the light-hearted.
There is more to it. Cows and dogs enjoy the freedom of moving around the roads; Traffic doesn’t stop for pedestrians and pedestrians run through the flowing traffic, a mini-Hollywood action show on the roads; Drivers turn color-blind when traffic signals turn red; Honking is such a favorite but an essential action for all our drivers; State run buses emit thick black smoke through their exhaust. You are left only with sound and smoke, if you are stuck in traffic.
In this traffic, there are only two categories of drivers – those who scare you and those who stay away from driving. I don’t belong to the latter. I just flow with the chaos.
My day, every week day
I wake up at 6.00. As is my practice for years, still feeling lazy I roll over and think of what to do that day. These days it is mostly ‘Nothing’ and so it boils down to just rolling for few minutes. One might wonder, why the hell then should I wake up at 6.00? That is because my father use to wake me at 6.00 every day since I was 11. It has become a biological rhythm since then. Soon after I will be urged for stomach cleansing, a part of the rhythm as well.
I am fresh; Ha! I shake myself to face the day. With a cup of coffee, I go over the daily news – mud slingshots of local and national politicians, police atrocities, death of this one, murder of that one, some strike in some part, more Americans dying in Iraq after Dubaya’s announcement of ‘major operations over’, and his claim that he has done something good for the world (= his supporting CEOs?), few pages of ‘Business around the world’, and another page of how Indian Cricket team lost against almost any other team in the world, and pages filled with ads ranging from Bra to Brandy. Wow! So much happening in the world. I am tired reading them, so I lie down and imagine how I could have changed the world if I was… suddenly a flashing thought: you idiot, get up and change your world.
After a long shower and dressing up, I have breakfast. What is the time? Only 10? I read something until I realize that I do have a job. At 11, I put on helmet and start my lovable motor bike. After riding through the bumpy roads of Chennai, I arrive at work. I login to the network and check emails. There are still few good friends who keep sending emails. I reply them. I browse through the subject lines of official mails. Mostly nothing urgent. When the clock ticks 12, I am at the lunch hall. It is a buffet every day. How is food? No complaints, no compliments. Sometimes I am joined by team mates. Mostly I go alone. After food, it is time to visit library. Read through some more news papers – same garbage from a different viewpoint.
Now starts tough part of the day – I got to work. Well, having been a workaholic, it is really tough to stare the monitor for a possible inspiration. Somedays I have some development to do or some coaching for the team mates. But mostly I am left alone to browse through the net and send emails. At around 15h00, I go for a coffee and come back to repeat whatever I was doing. Some of my team mates who are doing night shifts start arriving around 18h00. Then we have a chat and if they have any doubts, I clear them or confuse them more. By the time we finish, it is time for evening snacks. After snacks it gets busy, as we are in offshore production support team and our American clients start coming to their office. Team mates start to work and I pose to work. It is 20h30 and we are ready for dinner. Normally dinner is better than lunch, may be because it is less people. Do we pay for food? Yes, indeed. We have a monthly deduction of Rs.25 (little more than half Euro) for food – lunch, snacks, dinner all inclusive. Yes, believe me, I pay Rs. 25 for a month’s food. No, it is not that cheaper outside. We have subsidized charges. After food and a bit of work, it is time to hit the roads again.
Some days, I feel bad to be a paid jobless. Some days I feel, yea, for whatever the firm has done to me, they are repaying me in another way. Other days I am just scared to be laid off; But whatever the feeling, I tell myself, ‘Thou shalt relax, my boy’.
Ye he yea! right choice baby
Someone’s nightmare is almost always another’s sweet dream. At least that is the case with outsourcing. Outsourcing is the current topic of the town, be it New York or Chennai. But is it a new concept? I am damn sure that all the articles (both for and against) are written in a PC (or a laptop) manufactured and assembled in Taiwan. It is also possible that the authors drive a German car, wear Italian underwear and taste French wine. In a market economy, as venerated by the western countries, outsourcing is inevitable – in every industry where cost matters.
In the recent days, I have read so many articles against outsourcing. Almost all the articles point out that outsourced IT projects would fail for the lack of proper communication. I agree fully. But isn’t it a documented fact that any IT project would fail for the same reason even when users, analysts and developers belong to the same culture? Proper communication is important for any IT project, more so for an outsourced one.
Then comes the quality. It should be noted that half of so far granted CMM certifications are with Indian software firms. This does not mean that every outsourced project will be a success. A careful study of requirements and vendors need to be done, like any other IT project, instead of lamenting the failure.
Another aspect in those articles is the mix-up of skilled labor migration and outsourcing. They aren’t the same. Men and women of the developed world don’t rock the bed and even if they do so, many offsprings drop out of schools. Not every drop out becomes a Bill Gates. This creates a shortage in skilled professionals. On the contrary, our national hobby is producing children and we do it exceedingly well (though current President and Prime Minister of India are bachelors). Not just the quantity, even quality has been proved consistently better. Obviously we migrate to fill the vacuum. Even this is not a new concept. Long back, during World War II, Indian soldiers fought in Europe along side the British.
Factually speaking, outsourcing is a backfire of the Regan and Thatcher’s era of pushing the developing countries beyond their limits to open their markets. Then we struggled, now we strike back.
And you think, outsourcing impacts only the western economy and we Indians are basking in the new found wealth. Not quite true. For one, it has bastardized our society. Many of us did not evolve to posses such technology and luxury and thus are cut-off from the mainstream society, living in illusionary castles. At office, I talk to Americans who still live in yesterday and to Australians who have already seen tomorrow. Few of us, sleep when our children are in school and when they are asleep we come to office because that is the time our clients are working. It isn’t easy to be an Indian, never.
What does the future holds? Well, no one can predict the future. Probably as India raise to join the elite group, costs will go up here and then we will start outsourcing – may be to Vietnam, or to Africa or may be even to America. Along side a new business model will emerge embracing outsourcing (and migration). What I fear and a good possibility of it coming true is that new laws coming in place in the western countries shutting their markets for us. That will only prove the suspicion that the western countries preach democracy and open market, but when it starts hurting them they practice otherwise.