Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Travel and Learning 2

Week 2 passed off uneventfully. Research went on well. I took a day off in Madras and drove to Mahabalipuram with a friend. We left around 12 noon and reached fisherman's cove at 1.15ish. The drive was as scenic as ever. It had rained and hence the roads looked washed. The air was moist and the greenery seemed to have got a fresh coat of life. The very sight of the beautiful expanse of infinite blue just beyond the brown sun burnt sand and the small patches of green coconut groves lifted my already soaring spirits to new high.

At fisherman's cove resort we wanted to do the catamaran ride where they would take us on a catamaran into the sea for around a kilometer or two and drop you there with life jackets on. (For folks who have seen Anjana song in Yuva with Kareena and Vivek Oberoi or the Aazhithai Yezhuthu in Tamil with Trisha and Siddharth, this song was filmed in Fisherman's cove and the catamaran ride is the same one that I am talking about). Unfortunately the sea was rough and no boats were venturing into the sea. Later that evening when we came back home, we figured out that the particular day that we chose to go for the catamaran ride was the day when the moon was closest to the earth; and hence the rough sea conditions. Now imagine the odds of choosing one day out of 365 days and getting it on the same day that the moon decides to be 'chuddi-buddies' with earth.

This has led me to an intriguing thought and hence I am starting a contest. I would like to hear from you guys what is 'that' one( or more) situation which you felt would just not happen 'coz the odds of it happenning were not even imaginable. But 'that' happenned. I hope I am clear here. You could mail/ comment about your incidents. There is a prize at the end of this contest. I have the sole discretion of deciding the winner( and yes, I am allowed to select myself as the winner!)

Anywho, I was in Bangalore for the weekend and on Sunday morning I went for a drive and decided to drive to the other end of the city. On my way back, I entered a No Entry road and was promptly caught by the cop. He asked me to show me my driving license. I stepped out of the car with my dad to talk to him. He saw me wearing an Infosys T Shirt and my dad wearing a TCS T shirt. ( Thanks to my brother who participates in hazaar competitions and all inter collegiate competitions in Bangalore are sponsored by software companies who dole out freebies). He glanced at our T shirts, made a rhetorical comment ' Infosys', smiled and said ' be careful next time' and let me off :). I was ready to pay the fine of 300 bucks for making a mistake, but well, I was let off with a warning. :)

Back in the car, my dad was telling me that the respect for Infosys and Wipro in Bangalore is very high, for the phenomenal job creation. And I guess I would agree. The top 3 IT companies, TCS , Infosys and Wipro are together creating one lakh jobs this year. These three alone employ 2 lakh people. Add all IT companies, IT enables services and the employment in the economy due to IT industry like cab services, drivers, security etc etc etc. The multiplier effect is phenomenal. I recently read an article which criticised the industry of being at the lower end of value chain like call centers and author called the Indian BPO workers cyber coolies. You know what, if by being at the lower end of the value chain I can create the employment that this industry is creating today, I would be more than happy to be there. I know of a family where the father was a priest in the local temple earning 4500-5000 a month. They struggled to make their son study engineering. My uncle had helped the son prepare for the entrance exams and interviews in IT companies and he got a job in the first company itself. The starting salary was 15000 a month. The entire family turned up the next day at my uncles place with a basket of fruits/sweets/ gifts etc. Their joy was something to see. THey knew that their life had changed forever and for the better.

The market forces will ensure that at the bottom of the value chain, I innovate or find a niche to stay on when competition comes my way or I will perish. I will also slowly start moving up the value chain once I acquire expertise. By branding the entire force as cyber coolies who do routine mechanical no brainer work and hence destined to doom is completely unacceptable.
I have been ranting quite a bit. Moral of the story, Please wear Infosys T shirts while driving in Bangalore :)
Now I am back in Bombay and back to work in my office seat. Suddenly life has become a routine (within a day) and I am feeling uneasy. Guess I am a nomad at heart and my thrills lie on the roads that in cubicles.

In the meanwhile here are a few pictures from Mahabs taken on my cell phone. So please excuse the quality, but do admire the beaches!






Friday, October 19, 2007

Travel and Learning

This has to be one of the best parts of my job. I get to meet people from different walks of life, in different parts of the country. Rural,urban, metros, small towns, men, women, kids, families and so on. My meeting is not just a Hi-hello kind of meeting, but I spend a few hours at their place, understanding their lives better, their dreams , their aspirations, hopes, worries among other things.

Over the last one year I have met and lived with families in the villages of Andhra Pradesh, 'dehat' in Uttar Pradesh, affluent families, lower middle class families in Bombay, Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh. I am intrinsically a person who loves to have conversations. I talk to cab drivers, auto rickshaw- wallahs, paan wallahs on any topic under the sun. So this part of my job, where I get to 'live the lives' of people, albeit for half -a -day/ one day from such diverse backgrounds, gives me a huge, huge kick.

I am in the midst of such a trip where I am traveling to Mumbai, Chandigarh and Madras to meet people for the current research. The single biggest thing that I found in my current trip and from all the previous researches confirms what I have read about so much. 'we are a Nation in transition'. Its not that people in the villages never wanted progress before, or small town folks never wanted to make it big in the metros and the people in the metros never wanted to ape the cities in foreign shores.

But what I find now, is that there is a palpable excitement in the common man. They feel that progress is tangible and realisable in the not-so- distant future. They are hopeful about their future. Cynicism with the political class is still as prevalent as anytime, but more and more people are now asking and demanding what is their right - a chance to make their life better, to progress, and they are willing to work towards it.

The single biggest focus of every family I have met in the last one year is to provide their kids with English medium education. Some Villagers are moving to towns for a government school or convent education. The parents have changed their professions from farmers to daily wage earners to shopkeepers just so that their kids can attend a good school and have a bright future.I have met only a small section of people, may be 100 or so in the last one year, but when you get the same pattern throughout, you can be assured that you are onto something bigger.

I wish, if I may say, I have a dream ,that every citizen of this country being literate and having studied atleast upto class 10. And I am like every one of the people I met, hopeful. It is realisable in the next 20-25 years. Am I cynical? Yes. Somewhat. However, I rather translate this wish into practical positive action that be an arm-chair commentator.

Another underlying theme that comes across these researches is the pride in India and the new emerging self confidence. Some say that it is only a matter of time before we regain our rightful place in the world and nothing can stop us. It is here that I do not agree.

I love the passion in people. How I wish that we have a leader of great stature and statesmanship, who could channelize all this passion and energy into a vision and build a resurgent India. I guess, this is the one thing we lack today. As I look around, I see few leaders and no statesmen. One who can conjure up a dream, build it into a vision, sell it to the people, energise them and take the country forward. I do not think we need one person. Each section can have their own statesmen. As long as they have a common vision and a shared dream it will work just great. Democracy.

Sorry I digress here. I can talk forever on the topics of business, society, government, public policy,economics and the 'khichidi' of this.
Anyways, the point where I disagree is that we have a rightful place in this world which should be given to us. We do not have any rightful place. The only righful place is the place where we want to be and for that we need to work hard. Really hard.It will not be given to us on a platter.

The part which I fear (I have commented on this in Mahogany's blog) is the fact that this new found self confidence should not turn in over confidence and arrogance. we have not even achieved the tip of the so called iceberg of development. There is a long long way to go and we need to keep going on. While pride in our achievements is required, smugness is an unwanted guest. Its in our interest to stay humble of our achievements and realistic about the long road ahead.

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Switching gears, I landed in Chandigarh airport and drove to my hotel. I fell in love with the city on first sight. And yes, the first sight was from the plane when I saw a beautifully planned, neatly ordered city. Over two days, as I drove around the city, the broad roads, wide avenues and arcades, lush green trees, neatness deified, orderly driving all put together just wowed me. The sector 17 market is the biggest 'plaza' or city center I have ever seen in any city.

The city is neatly planned with rectangular sectors and each sector having its own market which is self contained with a post office, bank, grocery stores, pharmacy and other stores. It was the city Nehru took personal interest in designing and building. His dream of building a city that was unfettered by the past and a representation of the New India has been successful, I would say.

However, after the initial euphoria wore off, some things came to my notice. Most of the sectors and their markets are similar. There seems to be little novelty across sectors and their markets. Chandigarh is the capital of two states and a union territory by itself. So the number of government offices in that one city is phenomenal. And hence the number of government quarters is also big. And hence similar looking buildings :). Also, the city reminds me a lot of the socialist era where government built everything. One example to my mind is the markets in each of the sectors which has buildings with fixed size shops allotted. Imagine if the entire area was to be converted to a mall or a shopping arcade by private parties. Each market/ mall would vie to attract the crowd by novel designs, shops, entertainment and so on.

Having said all of this, to me Chandigarh represents the fact that we do have the capability of making great plans and executing them with excellence and at massive scale (that of the size of city). It is one city where I would want to go back again an maybe again and again. :)

pssss:I also got a chance to go to Kapil Dev's restaurant for dinner one night. The food was good, ambience nice and it was filled with pictures of Kapil Dev with many of the stars of the era. For a cricket buff, this was neat. There was one picture that will be forever etched in my memory. Kapil Dev lifting the Prudential Cup in 1983. I was a year old then, but I have heard innumerable times about the significant that victory was for us from cousins, parents, relatives and friends. It inspired Sachin Tendulkar, and gave a generation, their heroes.

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I was at the Chandigarh station which was filled with countless pigeons and mynahs chirping away. It was a orangish yellow hue created by the setting sun. The sun light filtered through the eucalytups trees behind the platform. The station was also not every big. Only two platforms and very neatly maintained. It was picture perfect. We (me and my colleagues) were greeted by a swank train that rolled into the platform.
I generally take overnight trains. Atleast off late that has been the case. I do not remember taking Shatabdi in the recent past. I entered my compartment to find it ultra cool. The seats were reclinable , big and totally comfortable. Each seat also had its own plug point which had square holes for foreign appliances. The overhead stowaway where we placed our suitcases were made of fibre glass giving the compartment a slick look. The service was nice. We were served with refreshments and three course meal and the food was good too.

I had the movie Blood Diamonds on my laptop which we saw and thanks to plug point, the battery never ran out :). Oh and btw, there was full cell network connectivity throughout the journey and as I have GPRS activated on my cell, I was connected to the net, surfing through and through. Unbelievable. I also was on Google talk and had a few conversations.

I am so totally impressed by the convenience. If you do have a chance to make train trips, do not miss them. I am pretty nostalgic about train journeys as I had written earlier here.

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In Delhi, we checked in to the company guest house by around 11 and after a some TV and small talk we crashed. I had my flight to Madras at 9.30 and was to leave the guest house by 8 for the airport. I was promptly woken up by the caretaker at 7.30 am with hot masala chai and biscuits by the bedside. While I finished my morning ablutions, I was served breakfast of toast, butter and cornflakes and some more brilliant masala chai. It felt so amazing. A great start with amazing chai. But more importantly, its been 7 years since I left home staying in hostels, with relatives and now by myself. I have been making coffee and breakfast for myself every morning. So for a few days when I visit home or relatives or guest house with attendant, I feel totally pampered and enjoy every bit of it. Small pleasures of life :)

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I am writing this post on my flight between Delhi and Madras. So looking forward to going to Madras. 2 out of 4 evenings in Madras will be spent at the beach :)

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

A slack period

I have been pretty busy off late. Last week was a busy week preparing for these two weeks. These two weeks I am traveling on work from Bombay to Chandigarh to Delhi to Madras to Bangalore and to Bombay.
Its not that my blogging is prolific, but the next two weeks I will have little access and even lesser time. So should be back with posts by end of the month.
And junta, if you guys have any suggestions on things to do in the above mentioned places, do drop in a word. Its my first visit to Chandigarh so I'm pretty excited. In Madras, there is this new Karaoke place opened up in Thiruvamyur, so would be hopefully checking that out.
Its feels nice to be traveling again. It been a while.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Shaken and Stirred

Last week I had a minor surgery on my right hand. A 20 minute operation with local anaesthesia. I guess I am fine now as I am able to type this post out. A little nagging pain but more or less, fine.

I reached the hospital around 9 in the morning when the doctor had one look at my hand and advised a minor surgery which I decided to take it that day itself. I was not told what time my surgery was scheduled and hence I sat in the operating theatre reception room from 11 to 4, till I was called in. In that period, almost every ward boy and nurse asked me who I was waiting for. They could not hide their surprise when I told them that I was the patient and had no one with me. I guess they were not used to seeing patients, that too for a surgery, alone.

Any ways, I went in to the theatre, lay on the table, had local anaesthesia administered, chit chatted with the surgeons while they were operating on me, completed the surgery, purchased the prescribed medicines and walked home.

The fun started an hour later when the effect of the anaesthesia started to wear off. I pride myself on being able to withstand a lot of pain. A wrist fracture, a wired ankle bone, a toe surgery and innumerable muscle tears, sprains and ligament injuries can make a person capable of bearing quite a bit of pain. But that day was something different.

I was alone at home when the pain started. It was acute, sharp, piercing and unbearable. I moved from one bed to another, from bed to sofa and from the sofa finally to the floor. I decided to have painkillers but I could not have them on an empty stomach. The only thing which was there at home on that day was maggi. I somehow managed to tear the packet open with my left hand and teeth and put some maggi to boil on the stove. By now the pain had reached alarming proportions. I was contemplating morphine injections, if only I knew where to find them and get a prescription for them. The maggi was done. The challenge was now to empty the cooked noodles from the pan onto the plate with only one hand. And somewhere in this process I burnt my left hand. A minor burn. But that was the tipping point. I gave in. I yelled loudly in pain. I don't know how I finished my maggi, but I did. I took my painkillers and lay on the bed. They were of little use.

Suddenly all un-nice memories start to flood me. I remember being surprised by those thoughts as I did not even know that they existed in my unconscious memory. They made me sadder and sharpened my pain. I decided to summon my own 'Patronus' by thinking of happy memories and happy times. I did conjure up happy scenes with my friends around. But most of them were happy when they occurred then, but not necessarily now. Suddenly all those events and memories which I had locked up in the recesses of my mind and had apparently forgotten came back to me, like a deluge when the floodgates are opened.

I gave up and caved in. I was physically and emotionally battered. I guess the painkillers did have their effect in a while and I slept off to wake up the next day morning. The pain had subsided substantially. Though I had to train my left hand to brush, I did manage to make coffee and was feeling better. But the ghosts of the past had come back to haunt and that was not something that I could easily forget.

I am much better and relaxed now. But many a times, these days, the calm facade, is just that - a facade. It is similar to a duck swimming in a pond. People can only see the grace and poise, but they fail to notice the near desperate paddling happening underneath the surface. But I know - This shall also pass.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Restlessness settled!

What follows is part 3 . Read part 1 and part 2 .
Dear Anand,

I know that it would have been a huge shock to you when those divorce papers were given to you. And you have been trying to talk to me for the past month now, but I have avoided all contact with you. This last one month of solitude and soul searching has helped a lot. I felt that I was just submerged in every day events that I did not know where my life was headed. I needed some time alone to do all this thinking. Some space, if I may call it so.

You are a good kid Anand and we had some good times together. Anand, you would remember that one night, I told you about the things that I wanted the most. Some of them were things, which if I pursued, would have put a strain on our marriage. But what you do not know Anand, that there are certain things that I hated the most. Like our freakishly disciplined lifestyle.

This past one month has taught me one very important thing. Sometimes, the things that we hate the most can also become the very same things that we miss the most. Anand, I know I have made a mistake. I just hope that it isn't late. I have so much to tell you, and that is exactly what I want to do. ‘tell you'- talk to you. I can't make myself pick up the phone call you and start this conversation. (You would know that from the number of blank calls I gave you when we were dating). Just let me know its ok to call you, I will. I have an open ticket back to Madras with me and am willing to take tonight's flight. When you know that there is a better life waiting for you, you would want that to start right now, right?

Dying to hear from you.
love
Priya

She read the mail, re read the mail, re re read the mail, till she had almost memorized the words. She clicked on the read receipt option and clicked on the send mail button.

Priya shut the laptop, closed her eyes and leaned back on her chair taking a deep breath. She was livid with herself over the events in the past two months and how she had created the mess. The events replayed in her mind over and over again and she was unable to shut these thoughts out. She walked up to window, opened it and stuck her head. The icy winds of Chicago were almost piercingly cold. The sting made it physically impossible to let her thoughts wander. She had begun to like the few minutes she spent in the cold. She walked back to her laptop. She had a post ready for her anonymous blog where she had been pouring her heart out over the past two months.

A message from Anand was waiting for her. A strange feeling took over her. She was happy to have received a reply so soon, but the very thought of what could be in there, made her quiver.
Priya,

The thing I like about you most is that you were always strong willed and took bold decisions. Not necessarily the right ones always. Your decisions were centred on your happiness and what you felt was the best for you. I guess, that was fine when we were friends, and it was a small issue when we were dating. But I was sure that it would change post our wedding. Apparently not.

Kiddo, while you are in the process of soul searching, do consider what I have just said. If we are to get back together, we take decisions as 'we' and not 'I'. Having said that, this one decision whether to come back home should be solely yours.

Still Smittenly yours,
Anand

Priya picked up the phone, 'Hello, Yes hi, I have an open ticket to Chennai, India. When is the earliest availability?'