Some Thoughts...

I was totally out of my mind when I discovered today that Pantaloon has already implemented all of my business ideas in the food & beverages space. It opened Brew Bar for selling beer, Cafe Bollywood for selling Indian street food, Chamosa for selling chai and samosas, Food Bazaar - the supermarket, and Sports Bar. Each one of these is a great concept in itself and is sure to make good money (if it's not already, because of the recession).

Came across this interesting concept called Reverse Mentoring, wherein those in the senior positions in an organization are mentored by those lower in the hierarchy. The funda is that those higher up usually belong to an older generation and can learn a lot about contemporary stuff, like latest technology, trends, fashion, preferences, thought processes, etc. from the youngsters. It's more important in markets like India where a majority of the consumers are young, while the CEO's and the decision makers are middle-aged. Reverse Mentoring helps you understand the consumer psyche by directly interacting with and learning from the youngsters in your own organization who belong to your target segment (for most products in a young country like India). The concept came from GE's Jack Welch and makes a lot of sense. So for best results, the organizational framework must facilitate and ensure both forward and reverse mentoring, so that the organizational thought process is aligned in the direction that serves all interests best.

I wish we had Reverse Mentoring in our political parties too. But the biggest hindrances to its success are - the inability of the senior person to suppress his/her ego, accept that there is a need to learn and it can be done best from a subordinate, and to develop a will to do it. Considering that and our current political scenario, Reverse Mentoring doesn't seem feasible in the near term. That's sad. I think if our 70-80-90 year old politicians understood today's India better, they'd never have assigned top priority in their manifestos to stuff like building a useless temple or protecting submerged rocks in the sea, stuff which any reasonably informed young Indian does not give a damn about. Nor would he/she vote, coz he/she sees no good options, nor does he/she have belief or hope. It's a vicious globe. Amir Khan's flying back to Mumbai from North America just for a day in the middle of his vacation and Shahrukh's taking one day off from IPL to cast their votes are not gonna help. I don't have solutions to suggest. Nor can I say 'go cast your vote', coz I am not convinced it helps.

Twitter!

It took me just a few minutes, after I signed up, to transform from a non-believer in the twitter concept to an obsessed fool. I was trying to figure out why twitter works in the first place and went to the site to see for myself. I was astonished by the urge that surged within me to tell the world what I was thinking, doing and feeling each moment, as I initially saw others doing it, and as I increasingly grew impatient and anxious to stay ahead of them, to be all over, to let the world know, to be the one seen and talked about, to have as many people following me as possible. Never before did I witness this side of mine so explicitly. I was both enthused and scared about whatever was happening to me. I did a lot of twittering yesterday, though no one among my 11 followers seemed to be following me. It was crazy, and I fear it's going to get crazier. I hope it doesn't.

My Twitter Profile

Jobs and Layoffs

Layoffs are happening everywhere these days. There was a time when getting an IT job was so easy that you could quit your job, purely on impulse, on any day and find another, that paid at least 30% more, the very next day. It was fun! People were always looking for newer jobs in IT. Companies paid exorbitant salaries to people of no worth, just coz they were the best they could find in spite of having all the dollars from the clueless clients in the US.

And now, you never know when you'd be asked to leave. Losing a job is painful, and then, if you have a family to support, you are in a big mess. I am lucky to be spending two years of the recession doing my MBA! It's almost certain that the job opportunities a year from now, when I'd finish my MBA, would not be any good either - that being either the recovery phase or one of deeper recession. But I am not really bothered. I don't like jobs anyway. Whenever I do something for which I get money or grades or rewards in return, I don't feel interested in it. I would otherwise have done a similar activity just out of interest, fought hard to complete it to perfection and enjoyed each moment of being a part of it. So for me, no job is good job. But I have to make money to survive. And support a family too which will come out of nowhere a couple of years from now.

I need a perennial, hassle-free, huge and reliable source of money to support me forever and then, I will go on and do whatever interests me at any point in time. I guess everyone wants this, but...

21-04-2009 04-21-2009

 

Had an amazing day today. Highlights - my manager finalized the project that I'll work on during the summer internship, I watched a 4-D movie, had a ride on a Ricksha, came back a bit early from office and took a nap and have now found time & interest to write something for my hungry blog! The only thing which I am still missing is pani-puri, called as gol-gappe in Delhi. I did try for it twice, but on one occasion, I did not have change, and on another, I couldn't find a pani-puri-wala despite walking a kilometer. It gets so damn frustrating at times, when you don't get pani-puri when you want it.

Won't talk about my project coz a Non-Disclosure Agreement, which I am yet to sign, will soon bind me from talking anything about it. It does seem interesting. Particularly the part which has been newly assigned to me.

The 4D movie was great. If you are wondering what 4D is, it's 3D movie plus an added dimension of physical experience created by stuff happening in the movie hall - like your chairs shaking, moving up and down, air blowing from somewhere, water sprinkled on you as an elephant points its trunk on your face, things tickling you here and there... all based on what's going on in the movie, such that you become a part of it, experiencing what's happening in there. It's interesting. It's fun. It was a short 20 minute animated movie about a guy who discovered Tokla Temple built in ancient times. The guy had to fight the Aborigines. The Tokla Temple was inside a cave which collapsed soon after it was discovered. The hero somehow manages to escape. The name of the movie was The Lost Island. A must see!

We watched the movie at Spice Mall near office. The Ricksha ride to Spice mall from the office and back was joyful and short. The Rickshas in Delhi are relatively new, light-weight and more efficient than the ones in the rest of India.

While coming back, we had all had Cornettos. Amit Vatsa's b'day treat! All of us had the same flavour - Black Forrest Flirt!

Delhi-1

Coming to Delhi is a dream come true to me. It took too long, but finally I am in Delhi, and I feel great. I am here for an 8-weeks Summer Internship program with the Times Group. Like it usually happens, you experience a place more (by visiting popular spots and seeing people) when you go there for a short visit like for a few weeks, than when you go for a longer period, say a few years. This may not be totally correct, coz one who stays longer relegates places of tourist importance to a low priority and focusses more on issues which matter for a comfortable living, which is not an unimportant thing and can give deep insights into the cultural and social aspects of any place. But nothing happens to everyone in the same way, and perceptions differ, and so do our understandings.

I saw the Lal Quila (Red Fort) yesterday. It was beautiful. Something reminded me, as I was walking between its walls, that I am a Civil Engineer, by education. I don't remember much of what I must know because of having a Civil Engineering degree, but I do get drawn to my past for a few nostalgic moments whenever I see any architectural masterpiece. And Lal Quila is one of them.

Since it was the World Heritage Day yesterday, entrance to the fort was free. We were not allowed to carry our bag, which we had to keep in a nice locker-room adjacent to the ticket counter for Rs.5/-. We entered the fort through the Lahore Gate. I was surprised to find shops inside, selling jewelry, art works, handicrafts, perfumes, etc. There is also a small cafeteria inside. We went around, saw Diwan-e-aam, Diwan-e-khaas, overheard a tourist guide explaining their significance to his bakraas (giving analogies like high court and supreme court), then we rolled on grass in the huge lawns, took pictures, I thought about life and its problems for a few minutes, tried to convince myself that worrying is of no use, took more pictures and came out feeling proud of India, especially Dilli.

Then we went to Parathe wali gali in Chandni Chowk and enjoyed delicious aloo parathas with the best lassi I ever had. We walked some distance through the gali and were overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle. The shops were all brightly lit and were full of energy and business activity. I turned my eyes up and saw electric cables running here, there, everywhere. It's so intricate, I was surprised it worked at all. There certainly must be problems, but since it works, there clearly are ways to fix them efficiently.

We were so full after having the parathas and the lassi that there was no way we could eat the famous Chandni-Chowk-ki-Chaat. I found that very frustrating. Being a big lover of chaat items, this was too damn frustrating. I somehow managed to have a plate of gol-gappe so as to get the taste of it. They were different from any pani-puri I had ever eaten. Though good, they were not among the best. But it's chaat in that place that's famous. I will go there again to have chaat, before my internship gets over.

And ya, this was Dilli-6 - the area in and around Chandni Chowk. I found many Indian tourits singing songs from the movie as they were seeing the Lal Quila. Particularly - ye dilli hai mere yaar, bas ishq mohabbat pyar. The song was running through my mind too. It was spontaneous.

From there, we went to the India Gate. Didn't spend much time there, as it was getting late. It was pretty dark by that time. The structure looked exquisite in lights. There was virtually no security there. People were entering the area from all sides. There were no metal detectors, no frisking. We could not go beyond the chains a few meters from the gate, both in the front and the back. I touched the gate at the left side of it (just a moment before my friend showed me a board saying the gate should not be touched). Realized that the surface of the India Gate was just cement plaster. Got confused whether this was fine or I should re-evaluate my opinion about the greatness of the structure. I kept asking myself - what's wrong with cement? - but followed by  - cement??? That was weird. I sometimes find it so difficult to be sure of what I feel about something. Is it so with everybody?

I had a great day. I didn't mention earlier about how I spent the afternoon at Connaught Place known as CP by most Delhiites. Besides learning a lot about Delhi, its people and its cultural aspects, I did the usual roaming around in the Malls and sitting and chatting in CCD and Barista over coffee. I think it's too early to comment on the people and the culture of this city. I think I am liking the city. Will explore more and write more. Keep reading.

Guncha...

Turn your speakers on... and relaaaaaax!!!

Satyam

I was an employee for 6 months in Satyam Computers. I even saw Ramalinga Raju once. Everyone at Satyam said he was a nice man, humble and all that... but I never trusted the guy. He speaks like a dhongi baba... totally fake. 


How I landed up at Satyam is not a very long story. It was an accident, just like my coming to IIML, my joining GSSL, my shifting to Hyderabad from Pune, to Pune from Chennai, and most of my other significant achievements in life, including my life itself. People who say we choose our destinies, either don't understand anything about life, or have not lived enough to perceive how funny (some would say cruel, and are justified in doing that) life is at playing with our choices, and leaving us gaping at ourselves to understand how much we chose and how much was an outcome of a game of dice between confused gods, goddesses and all the genders that apply to gods, if at all they do.

Everyone starts finding faults with a company when it's not doing well. And Satyam, quite a few times now, has put all four of its tiger-feet in its mouth. So I also would like to take the pleasure of some bitching just to get some kaleje-ki-thhandak, though most of what I'd grumble about is true for almost all big IT companies in India.

I was recruited very easily by Satyam... without many questions. I had been jobless for a month at that time, and the job meant a lot to me. Not because I was dying to work or because it hurts when life doesn't have challenges. I don't think I want work or challenges of the kind these jobs offer. Wonder how they really motivate people. They make me sad, turn me off, to be honest (though I always did well in my jobs and was skillful at the work). Money was the only reason I wanted the job. Otherwise I was quite happy taking naps in the afternoons on grass at Vengala Rao Park after movie at PVR and lunch at Ohri's... I miss those days of joblessness. My lifestyle cost a lot of money though, which I was required to earn and keep on earning. 


I was sent back when I first went to join Satyam at its Masha-allah office adjacent to Paradise hotel in Secunderabad. I had not completed one of the before-you-turn-up-for-joining formalities. I was supposed to fill up all my details into a website, which I didn't coz I hadn't received the password. I went again 2 days later after finishing the stuff that I'd missed, and the joining process was smooth and quick thereafter. 

At that time (Nov 2007), they were recruiting like crazy. There were hundreds joining the company every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And everyone who joined was put on bench. Satyam is the only company in the world which has an office dedicated to people on bench. In Hyderabad, it was the office in Karkhana area. All benchers reported to the same guy and fell under a vertical called SSU Business Wait. (Don't know what SSU meant). There were structural changes in the company during the 6 months of my timepass there, and by the time I left, there was no 'Business Wait', but many Horizontal Competency Units, one for each technology, like Java, Mainframes, etc. etc. I could never understand those Horizontals and Verticals ka funda. Satyam was obsessed with them.

In many ways Satyam is unique in its sadism, that is somewhat different from those of other IT companies (I've worked in 3, and know people in 100). For example, I've met and spoken to people who had been on bench for more than a year (also came across quite a few cases of close to 2 years on bench). This happened mainly with freshers who were recruited straight out of college and were taken under a bond. (Funny that TCS likes to call it a Service Agreement, saying bond is for bonded laborers. They made me pay a hefty sum for quitting in 6 months. I screwed up, actually. Couldn't abscond like most of my friends did. That story, some other time...). And the nature of the bond was such that they couldn't abscond without paying the bond money, coz they had to pay the money in advance when joining the company and it was returned to them only after serving for 2 years. And of course, if you leave before 2 years of service, your money is gone. So most of those youngsters stayed, in spite of being totally work-less, for 2 years. It's not all that bad though. I must confess that out of my 44 months of work-ex - that I proudly flaunt in my CV with bullet points saying I did work worthy of 100 nobels and claim an edge over the fresh-out-of-college guys here at IIM - about a year of that was spent being on bench. And I think there is nothing better that can happen to you in an IT company, than being on bench. I had wonderful times on bench, had great experiences, met the best people and made the best friends. 

But, I think, how much you enjoy being on bench also depends on which stage of career you are in. It is wonderful if you are in the initial stages, when you are single, ready to mingle, and don't have the conservative gulti instincts of saving and worrying about the doomsday, when it's least necessary. It is wonderful also because in the initial stages of your career, you tend to take things lightly for some time since you are just freshly out of college. You are not so bothered about career progression and stuff like that for quite a while if you get a good break (like Satyam) soon after college. So you want to enjoy for some time and bench offers everything to do that well - time, money and people. Bench is also a good way for people with no techy bent of mind, to sail through those initial years of coding, and get to the next levels like TL, PL, PM etc. which are even more timepass jobs, pay much better and give you power to screw people's lives - which is a great motivator to people who have plenty of food and sex, if Maslow is to be believed. (I have another theory, which contradicts Maslow's. Will write about it some other time). 

I was amazed by Satyam's propensity to amass enormous amounts of resources without having any use for them. For example, Satyam has tens of huge buildings in Hyderabad ranging from dilapidated structures to modern glass towers whose floors and walls are rubbed 24 hours to perfect sheen by smartly dressed workers. I, along with a few hundred guys on bench, was moved into one such building in Hitech City. It was very visibly a desperate attempt by the company to have some human activity in the newly constructed building. The building had many halls, each with 100-200 new and fast computers, arranged in rows and lying idle. I don't know if I should admire the company for building such excellent facilities or criticize it for wasting capital. It would have done much better if it had paid good salaries and also found work for its employees whose careers were ruthlessly screwed by the company's project allocation policies. I say this because out of all those who joined the company with me in November 2007, hardly anyone has been assigned any work; and a good percentage have been laid off after being kept idle for a year or so. This mess, certainly, cannot be attributed solely to the sub-prime crisis.
However, for me, those 6 months were great. My room-mate used to be jealous coz he had to work whole day, while I barely went to office for 2-3 hours. Satyam paid me well, misled like everyone by my IIT degree. And thanks to Maher, my room-mate, and Habib, my landlord, that I lived in a decent house in the very posh Banjara Hills, not very far from Ramalinga Raju's house, and I was told, not very far from Sania Mirza's house too.
There was once an attempt by the Satyam HR to move me to Bangalore saying there was nothing for me in Hyderabad. I resisted for some time, coz I didn't want the great times in Hyderabad to end. When I finally did agree to consider it, the Team Leader of that Project rejected me, without telling me any reason. I was ready to work in any damn project in any of the offices in Hyderabad, but those guys who called themselves CoRCC (they searched projects for idlers) never found a match between my profile and the available requirements. They used some crap profile-matching software that never found me good for any work.


There were some very smart people around me at Satyam. Some of them were capable of doing the best and the most complex of jobs. There were quite a few highly self-motivated individuals who constantly strived to upgrade their knowledge. And most of them were very frustrated at not getting any work to do. And that frustration often creeped into me too. It is hard to be principle centered when your principles are driven by instincts and thought rather than socially accepted norms. My principles have gained some resilience over time, but they are still looking for a clarity that can fix them firmly into my character.

Some other benefits I drew from Satyam included a lot of internet time to read news and articles that helped me in my preparation for IIML GD and Interview, great email-spamming with my Pune Siddharth Nagar friends, extra allowance of Rs.2400 for 8 night-shifts (300 a night), thousands of jokes and laughing moments with Rajneesh and Sidhu, 20 cups of ginger-tea every day, and an apparently stable job after the failed stint at an NGO.


Quitting Satyam was not a good experience. The HR Managers were all rude, the process was bureaucratic, and nobody asked me why I was leaving, nor did anyone try to stop me. Plus, there was one bad-termpered Manager who did not allow me to serve a 1-month notice and buy out the remaining 1 month (2 months notice was the company policy, and I did not have enough time to serve that long a notice). Interestingly, I told one HR Manager, who was handling my exit, about the other Manager who was asking me to leave immediately despite the fact that I could, would have liked to and had a right to stay for a month. And the HR guy even said 'uske baap ki company thodi hai! Mai idhar policies aur forms leke kya jhhak maar raha hoon?' But finally he had to give in to the kameena Manager who was both senior and powerful, and the rules and policies were compromised. I had to pay the money and leave immediately.

But on the whole, in spite of all the stupidity that I was a part of, it was a good experience being in Satyam. I got lots of time to pursue my personal interests, which also include just sitting and staring into thin air, sometimes thinking stuff that can make sense only to Einstein, and often not even to myself. It's sad that the company is in such a miserable state now, and thousands of its honest and hard-working employees are suffering for no fault of theirs. I wish them all the very best. To a great extent, life is as sad and disappointing as we want it to be. And my dear Satyamites have faith in the ability of the arbitgiri of this world to lead to outcomes which are best for us... be happy, keep working hard... life is a gift, it is great and will continue to be great!